37 - Physical Culture / Strength / Wrestling / Desbonnet

Physical Culture / Strength / Wrestling / Desbonnet 3 tin plates with rounded edges, each featuring a photograph mounted under celluloid. Fastener on the back. 11 x 15.5 cm - Edmond Desbonnet (1868–1953) with a ball-and-barbell. Before becoming one of the pioneers of physical culture, Desbonnet was an active practitioner himself. The master is among the heroes he helped to celebrate. - Batta (1866–1939), in performance attire. One of Lille’s many athletic phenomena. A star of weightlifting, he also excelled in the circus (Rancy), where he lifted a horse, creating “strength riding.” He is mentioned in *Les Rois de la Force*. - “A Wrestling Championship in Minsk (Russia).” Group photograph of 12 wrestlers, captioned in French with their names and origins. We can recognize the Estonian Georg Lurich and, presumably, Cyganiewicz, the future champion Stanislaus Zbyszko. Based on early 20th-century photographs. Probably produced around 1930. Serving as a portable museum of strength heroes, these plaques are linked to Desbonnet’s publishing enterprise. Founder of the magazine “La Culture Physique” in 1904, he was the first historian of strongmen and assembled a considerable photographic collection. His magazine offered bonuses to subscribers—books and photographs of athletes of their choice—and sold portraits of athletes by mail order.