From Exotic Dancers, 1890s (via):
"Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by J GURNEY & SON, in the Clerk's Office, of the District Court for the Southern District of New York."
I doubt that the double entendre is intentional. The Devil's Auction was in fact a Broadway show, first performed in 1867. It was reviewed in the New York Times (pdf): "a prose melo-drama in four acts, interspersed with singing and dancing". The star was one Eliza Blasina: "This latter lady is of a graceful height and a lovely countenance, which prepossesses the auditors in her favor before her agile and harmonious movements awaken their admiration". From which one gathers that this was largely an excuse for gentlemen to ogle scantily-attired young ladies in artistic poses.
We learn here (via) that this picture is indeed of the lovely Eliza, in full equine gear for the benefit of the the hippophile tendency, whose admiration will surely have been well and truly awakened. Well, the past is a foreign country...
And if you're wondering about the shift from a plump Victorian ideal of feminine beauty to the modern thin one, there's some explanation here. It's all about...
changes to conflicts between capitalism and religion, the backlash against women’s equality, industrialization and the devaluation of maternal roles, fashion trends, the professionalization of medicine, our cultural relationship to food, and more.
So now you know.
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