Animal costumes from the 1862 Jung-Munich Artists’ Association fairy ball — The Public Domain Review

The yarn matched well with the fairytale-themed masquerade ball organized by the Jung-Munich artists’ association during the 1862 carnival. The invited milieu, which included the Bavarian court, the future ‘fairy-tale king’ Ludwig II and the cream of the Munich art scene, was a far cry from the recent, rustic origins of the Hedgehog and the Hare. But fairy tales and folklore – as collected by the Brothers Grimm, Ludwig Bechstein (who adapted the Hare and the Hedgehog in his 1853 book) Deutsches Märchenbuch), and others – were all wildly popular, and Munich was in the middle of a mask festival craze. Albert photographed dozens of guests in lavish costumes with images of medieval monarchs, mermaids and various elegant animals: the hare, the arm around the hedgehog (with a bottle of cognac in his hand, the reward for his victory in bad faith) and the ‘gestiefelter Kater’, or Puss in Boots. The cat, bowing theatrically in his knee-high socks, is mentioned in the “festival newspaper‘next to a golden goose, implying at least another creepy animal, the photo of which may have been lost.