I’ve written before about the difficulty in learning much information about jugglers prior to Paul Cinquevalli, who began his performing career in 1876. Other than a few exceptions, such as Signor Vivalla, Karl Rappo, Old Malabar, and Medua and Mooty Samme, we know very little about specific jugglers from the early and mid 1800s. One juggler that we do find some references to and illustrations of is De Bouche. We know that he was from Paris, France and that he performed in Germany in the 1820s and 1830s. According to juggling historian Lukas Reichenbach, De Bouche was an apprentice to a Professor Schuar from Vienna, Austria, who had been primarily performing mechanical wonders and other physics based “magic” as early as 1810. The only other information we have about De Bouche is what can be gleaned from various illustrations and their accompanying text. But, as the saying goes, a photo (or in this case an illustration) is worth a thousand words. Let’s take a look at the images we do have and learn what we can from them.
The first image is undated and shows De Bouche juggling balls. We can see four swords, four plates, cup sticks (which you can read about by clicking here), and additional balls on the stage before him. He is pictured wearing a headdress and clothing reminiscent of those worn by South American or North American Indigenous Natives from that period. This may have been done to make him appear more “exotic,” as was often the style of that period. Although he is shown doing an impossibly circular ten ball shower, I think we can safely assume that number of props is hyperbole.
De Bouche
The text that accompanied the above image stated that he artfully played with a sword, spun a top on a stick on a rifle, balanced an egg on a straw, balanced a dog on the top of a ladder (see later illustration), juggled balls in cup sticks, juggled daggers, and juggled four large balls in a circle. It also offered monetary prize for anyone who could equal De Bouche’s feats.
This image is very similar to a woodcut from 1820 showing a French juggler dressed in Indian garb, which you can see below. The similarities are quite striking, leading us to ask if the woodcut may possibly be of De Bouche.
Unknown French Juggler – 1820
The next illustration of De Bouche is from around 1830 and shows the juggler performing with devil sticks. This is one of the earliest depictions of devil stick known to exist.
De Bouche – Around 1830
The next image is also from around 1830, and shows De Bouche balancing a pole with a platform on which a dog is standing on its hind legs with its front paws resting on a cross bar at the top of the pole. Balancing objects with animals at the top must have been a popular trick of the times, as Old Malabar balanced a ladder on his chin with a donkey at the top.
De Bouche – Around 1830
The final illustration is from 1829 and shows De Bouche performing the Birds in the Tree trick, also known as the Hunt of Diana. The trick involves the juggler balancing a tree-like prop on his or her head. In the branches of the tree are fake birds. The juggler then attempts to shoot the birds out of the tree with a small blowgun. This trick had earlier been introduced to European stages by Ramo Samee in 1818 and by Medua and Mooty Samme in 1824. You can click here to learn more about this trick.
De Bouche 1829
Many of the routines performed by De Bouche were also done by Felix Testot, a magician and juggler of the same time period. Below, you can see an illustration and description of Testot’s juggling act. Note how similar the illustration is to that of De Bouche and the unknown French juggler in the wood cut.
Felix Testot – 1825
Notice that some of the “forms” presented by Felix Testot were called “temples, cascades, circles” and “rainbows.” This is the first known use of the term cascade for a juggling pattern, although we can’t know which pattern it was. Also notice that Testot had rings, daggers, balls, and cup sticks laid out, similar to the De Bouche (who had plates instead of rings) and the French wood cut.
So, it appears that De Bouche and Testot performed many of the standard juggling routines of the period. De Bouche was one of the earliest named devil stick jugglers, after Mooty Samme, and they are the earliest named users of cup sticks of which we are aware. If you have any additional information or images of De Bouche or Testot, the juggling history community would love to learn more about them.
David Cain
David Cain is a professional juggler, juggling historian, and the owner of the world's only juggling museum, the Museum of Juggling History. He is a Guinness world record holder and 16 time IJA gold medalist. In addition to his juggling pursuits, David is a successful composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer as well as the author of twenty-six books. He and his children live in Middletown, OH (USA).