The Stone Eater, from Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters of Remarkable Persons

Datecirca 1869

MediumInk on paper, engraving

DimensionsHEIGHT: 9 3/4 × 6 in. (24.8 × 15.2 cm)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineTibbals Circus Collection

Object numberht8000394

Although this particular print has a publication date of 1794, the image dates back to 1641 and a Dutch artist named Hollar. The story of the 17th century stone-eater, Francis Battalia, was included in the 1869 publication The Book of Remarkable Characters by Henry Wilson and James Caulfield. As the story goes, Battalia was born holding three small stones. Unwilling to nurse, the child instead ingested the stones. He was said to eat several pounds of stone each day and regularly pass them as sand. Battalia performed as a stone eater at the Bartholomew Fair in England in the 1650s. In modern times performers continue to present as stone eaters. Harry Houdini learned the act in his early years performing with the Welsh Bros. Circus around 1895. When he wrote about the experience, Houdini explained that generally such acts relied on the performer’s ability to regurgitate the stones as soon as they left the stage.

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