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 17

KAUFFER, Edward McKnight (1890 – 1954). The Greatest Show on Earth / Presents Its 50 Most Famous Elephants / Ringling Brothers And Barnum & Bailey.

Estimate: $200 - $300
Starting Bid
$100

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

KAUFFER, Edward McKnight (1890 – 1954). The Greatest Show on Earth / Presents Its 50 Most Famous Elephants / Ringling Brothers And Barnum & Bailey. 1942. Half-sheet horizontal lithograph circus poster. This was one of two wartime posters for RBBB designed by Kauffer; both incorporate the text “Buy Defense Bonds” into the design. 

Framed. 19 1/2 x 22".

 

Condition

Light creases, some skinning at bottom edge. 

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