Potter & Potter Auctions
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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 427

Pair of circus menagerie pitch books.

Estimate: $200 - $400
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

Pair of circus menagerie pitch books. Including:

A brief biographical sketch of I.A. Van Amburgh, and an illustrated and descriptive history of the animals contained in this mammoth menagerie and great moral exhibition. New York: S. Booth, 1861.

DAY, Charles H. The animal kingdom illustrated and sketches descriptive of the wild beasts contained in Forepaugh's menagerie. Philadelphia: Forepaugh's Amusement Enterprises, ca. 1883. 

Both in original wrappers. Illustrated. 8vos. 

Condition

Forepaugh's with tape repair to backstrip; scattered chipping, tears, and small losses. 

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