This is a rare mid-18th century playbill, beautifully illustrated with woodcut images of Abraham Saunders (1748-1839). He is shown performing three of the apparently impossible feats of balance on the slack wire and tightrope that the poster advertises he will perform that evening, 22nd January 1766, at the Theatre, Salford. Illustrated playbills were more expensive to produce, but attracted a lot more attention than the simply typographic, and especially interested the illiterate.

This type of performance, by Mr. Saunders and his brother, was more usually seen at fairs and circuses, but it is advertised here at the theatre in Salford, for one night only. Since it was January, the poster notes that there would be fires in the Pit and the Gallery, and that tickets would be available in Salford at Crompton's Coffee House, the Old Coffee House, the Bull's Head and the King's Head. There is no indication that tickets sold at the theatre, probably because it was a Benefit performance, when the performer took a percentage of the profits and had the responsibility of selling the tickets himself.