Two circus or variety performers posed with large juggling or balancing balls are captured in this cabinet card by Burrell, Photo Artist, 357 Westminster Street, Providence, Rhode Island, dating to the 1880s or 1890s. The full-length studio composition, elaborate costumes, and use of performance props identify this as a theatrical promotional portrait of a working act, likely produced for distribution as a billing card or personal keepsake.

The woman at left wears an embroidered performance bodice with fringe trim over patterned tights and ankle boots, holding a large wooden or leather ball aloft on a stick in her right hand. The man at right wears a striped satin jacket with a ruffled white shirt front, dark trousers, and holds a second large ball at his side with one hand on his hip in a confident stance. A third large ball rests on a pedestal between them on a fringed table draped with a striped cloth, and a painted backdrop with draped curtain and classical column fills the background.

Large ball juggling and balancing acts were a staple of circus and variety entertainment throughout the latter nineteenth century, and studio portraits of performing pairs in full costume with their props are among the more visually compelling and collectible examples of the theatrical cabinet card genre. The subjects are unidentified.