Jacques Tourniaire

Menagerie of Mr. Tourniaire , notice from 1817

Tourniaire's Indian rhinoceros, 1820

Jacques Tourniaire (* 1772 in Grenoble , † 1829 in Königsberg ) was a French horseman , animal dealer, principal of a circus and owner of a traveling menagerie . In Russia he was made an honorary stable master.

Life

Jacques Tourniaire came from a family of comedians and was known as an art rider around 1800; at the age of 15 he performed in Paris with Philip Astley and later with Antonio Franconi . In 1801 he founded his own company as an art rider, which also includes acrobats , puppeteers and pantomimesand which he ran with his wife Philippine. Madame Tourniaire, née Rödiger (1780-1850), came from a family of successful animal traders and was also an art rider. In 1816 the Tourniaires supplemented their company, with which they had also traveled through Germany, with a royally privileged traveling menagerie, whose valuable livestock had been assembled by Jacques Tourniaire in London . On trips through Holland , Belgium and France , Madame Tourniaire ran the animal show alone; in some places both companies appeared at the same time.

A notice from 1817 names a total of 35 animals, including a white-tailed wildebeest, which is listed as a "horned horse or gnu". The animal population also included a trained stag , and later also an Indian rhinoceros and an elephant , which Tourniaire had acquired in the course of the dissolution of the princely menagerie in Stuttgart . Madame Tourniaire sold the collection in Brussels in 1824 , but kept the rhinoceros and elephant and continued to tour with these two animals; in the following years she increased her animal population again.

In the meantime, Jacques Tourniaire made guest appearances with his horse troop in Russia for several years; Tsar Nicholas I honored him with the appointment as stable master. In 1827 he bought a stake in a planned permanent circus building in St. Petersburg for 30,000 rubles with the aim of securing a permanent location for his performances. The court office decided differently, bought Tourniaire's stake in 1828 and set up a new theater in the building.

Of the six children of the Tourniaires, the four sons remained loyal to the traveling showman trade. Two sons founded a circus with which they went to England and America ; the other two sons joined a company as art riders and in 1835 took over their mother's elephant and rhinoceros. One daughter married the director of the Copenhagen Zoo and the other a nobleman.

literature

• Annelore Rieke-Müller, Lothar Dittrich : Out and about with wild animals. Wandering menageries between instruction and commerce 1750–1850 . Basilisken-Presse, Marburg 1999; Pp. 33-39 ISBN 3-925-34752-6