John Hauptman and little Nannette

People with Dwarfism have worked as entertainers since at least the Roman period; not always from choice. Nannette Stocker, from Austria, and John Hauptman, from Germany, were ‘encouraged’ to tour Europe by their guardians in 1798. They were ‘exhibited’ together at 22 New Bond Street, central London, in 1815 where the artist John Claude Nattes made this ink drawing.

The sketch suggests that the exhibition was quite intimate, giving visitors the opportunity to converse with Stocker and Hauptman between their performances. One of the two fashionably-dressed female spectators is carrying a purse, reminding us that this was a paying event. Stocker entertained her audience by playing the piano forte, while Hauptman played the violin. They are also reported to have danced the waltz, while the presence of a table (perhaps a dressing table with a jewellery box) suggests that they also presented themselves engaged in everyday domestic activity.

Performances by people of short stature in this period often combined a display of their talents alongside storytelling, conversation and demonstrations of everyday activities, designed to emphasise ordinary life ‘in miniature’.

Nanette was born in Kammer, Austria in 1781. After the death of her mother in 1797 she was adopted by a guardian who ‘determined to show her to the public’. She began touring Europe and teamed up with John Hauptmann a year later. She was seen at a fair in Stuttgart by Hermann Ludwig von Löwenstern, who recorded in his diary that ‘Nanette Stocker is very intelligent, speaks German, French, English and Italian. She is the mistress and does not let her foster parents tell her anything even though, as she herself admits, she is dependent upon them because of her disobliging size; and she cannot control her income.’ The comment gives a clue as to the amount of autonomy that Stoker possessed in this period, suggesting that while she perhaps had little choice over her manner of making a living, she nevertheless asserted her independence of thought on stage, and was evidently admired for her intellect and musical talent, albeit by an audience who often had a patronising view towards people with dwarfism.

As well as performing in Bond Street in 1815, Stocker and Hauptmann were presented to the royal family at Buckingham House that year, and returned to London to appear at the Strand in 1818. According to their published biography Hauptmann proposed marriage to Stocker, but she declined ‘for reasons known only to herself.’ Stocker may have settled in Birmingham as she performed annually at Birmingham’s Onion Fair in Aston, and died in the city on 4th May 1819. She is buried in the graveyard of St Philip’s Cathedral. Her headstone is inscribed: ‘In Memory of / Nanetta Stocker / who departed this Life / May 4th 1819 / Aged 39 Years / The smallest Woman ever in / this Kingdom possessed / with every accomplishment / only 33 Inches high / a native of Austria.’

A 16-page pamphlet, translated as The History & Travels of the Little Nanette Stocker and of John Hauptmann, was published in Toulouse in 1806, followed by an English edition in 1816. It contains a biography that may be partially fictionalised.