Potter & Potter Auctions
Live Auction

Step Right Up: Circus and Sideshow Memorabilia

Thu, Sep 3, 2026 11:00AM EDT
  2026-09-03 11:00:00 2026-09-03 11:00:00 America/New_York Potter & Potter Auctions Potter & Potter Auctions : Step Right Up: Circus and Sideshow Memorabilia https://auction.potterauctions.com/auctions/potter-potter/step-right-up-circus-and-sideshow-memorabilia-23625
Featuring the collection of lifelong circus collector John Diesso, this auction includes heralds, couriers, and posters advertising the "greatest shows" of yesteryear. Photographs, route books, scrapbooks, and circus costumes will be also be offered, spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A wide array of early European circus posters will be sold, along with a large library of circus books of several thousand volumes.
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Lot 509

Binder of Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey, and R.B.B.B. letterhead and ephemera.

Estimate: $300 - $500
Starting Bid
$150

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$30 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $200
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000

Binder of Ringling Bros. / R.B.B.B. letterhead and ephemera. Vp., v.d. (bulk early to mid-20th century). Approximately 56 items, including mailing covers, letters and letterhead, checks, and other ephemera, held in a binder. Some highlights include:

Eliza Morris Ringling memorial (ca. 1941), with attached photograph of Ringling early in her career as a snake charmer.

Contract between Ringling Bros. and Ralph Hall, 1st asst. clarinet, 11 October 1910, signed by Hall, and by Albert Sweet of Ringling Bros.

Ringling Bros. check signed by Henry Ringling, 8 November 1912.

Ringling Bros. check signed by Tom Buckley, 17 December 1914.

(2) business cards for Tom Dailey, R.B.B.B., Manager Advertising Car No. 2.

R.B.B.B. letter from R.B. Young to Charles Hutchinson, 29 June 1921, requesting $100 charged to his account.

Weekly wage statement for J. Cook of Barnum & Bailey, 18 Oct. 1913, endorsed by time keeper George O. Stevens.

Weekly Expense Account booklet of Charles Parker, Barnum & Bailey, Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, 1918. 

1956 R.B.B.B. press pass.

Size 11 x 8 1/2" and smaller.

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