The Most Unusual Bout in London — Victorian Antique Print

This irresistible original antique print documents one of the most extraordinary and improbable spectacles of the Victorian entertainment world: Professor Landerman, an Australian pugilist, squaring up to a boxing kangaroo — seven feet high and, according to contemporary reports, possessed of a scientific style and a harder punch than the ordinary human fighter — at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, one of the great popular entertainment venues of late Victorian London.

The Royal Aquarium, opened in 1876 in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, was one of the defining institutions of the Victorian leisure industry. Conceived as an educational attraction on the model of the great aquaria of the age, it rapidly evolved into something altogether more eclectic and populist — a vast pleasure palace that combined genuine natural history exhibits with variety performances, exhibitions of curiosities, and spectacles of every description. By the 1880s and 1890s it had become famous — or notorious — for the sheer range and audacity of its entertainments, and a boxing kangaroo was entirely in keeping with its spirit.

The kangaroo's reputation as a natural boxer was well established in the popular imagination of the era. The animals' powerful hind legs and habit of grappling with their forepaws made them formidable opponents, and the spectacle of a trained kangaroo sparring with a human challenger drew crowds wherever it was exhibited. Professor Landerman — billed as an Australian, and therefore presumably acquainted with the species — was the ideal opponent for such an encounter, and the management of the Royal Aquarium clearly judged it a spectacle that London could not resist.

• Subject: Professor Landerman, Australian pugilist, boxing a kangaroo at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster
• Medium: Original antique print
• Size: Approximately 17 × 24 cm (7 × 9 inches)
• Scan: 350 dpi
• Condition: Original antique print — age-toning consistent with period. Any slight tears along the edges of the original print will be repaired using acid-free archival tape. No original prints will be sold where there is damage to the principal image area.

A wonderfully comic and historically vivid piece for collectors of Victorian entertainment history, boxing history, natural history curiosities, or London social history — and an utterly irresistible conversation piece for any interior.