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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 450

Group of six circus chapbooks and pamphlets.

Estimate: $150 - $250
Starting Bid
$80

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

Group of six circus chapbooks and pamphlets. Circa 1880s-1930s. Titles include:

History of the Wonderful Baby Elephant. NY Popular Pub. Co., ca. 1880.

W.C. Coup's New United Monster Shows. Illuminated Primer. New York: Torrey & Clark, ca. 1880s. Alphabet book, with circus illustration and rhyme for each letter.

Circus Animals. Puzzle Pictures for Boys and Girls. Circus animal puzzle booklet issued by Sterling Products and advertising California Fig Syrup.

Frank A. Robbins' Child's Amusement Primer. New York, 1887.

Sims, Emmett. Training and Handling Domesticated Pets and Wild Animals, with Factual Stories on the Life of Terrell Jacobs. 

Ringling, Charles. Spectacle: In Days of Old. 1918. Booklet with plans and directions for the circus spectacle by Charles Ringling, for Ringling Bros. Shows.

Original wrappers (except last title). 8vo and smaller. Most illustrated. 

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