Potter & Potter Auctions
Live Auction

The Ricky Jay Collection Part III

Sat, Aug 17, 2024 12:00PM EDT
Lot 118

[CIRCUS]. Carlo Family! New York: Jno. E. Bacon, [ca. 1860s...

Estimate: $200 - $400

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
[CIRCUS]. Carlo Family! New York: Jno. E. Bacon, [ca. 1860s]. One-color pictorial letterpress broadside playbill advertising performances by the American acrobats and pantomimists, bearing two small wood-engraved images at top of a unicycle ascensionist performing outdoors and a big top tent surrounded by a crowd of visitors, along with a larger image near the bottom of a man dressed as a goblin bursting forth from a wooden box as a nearby young woman in a flower dress gestures toward him with a long wand. The act also featured a knife-throwing demonstration ?known as the Impalement! actually Impaling a Living Human Body with Huge Daggers to the wall, by the thrower.? Among the performers were patriarch Felix Carlo, a famous clown, and his sons William (d. 1879), George, and Frederick. The three brothers toured with Barnum in 1876 and travelled internationally as the Carlo Brothers? Circus. 18 ? x 6?. Old tape repairs, horizontal center crease, soiling, scattered losses affecting text and image particularly to lower left edge. SCARCE.