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 89

WAGNER, Louis. Circus Busch / Leinert's Raketen-Mensch.

Estimate: $700 - $1,000
Starting Bid
$350

Bid Increments

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$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

WAGNER, Louis. Circus Busch / Leinert's Raketen-Mensch. Germany, ca. 1920s. Color lithograph poster promoting this human cannonball (or rocket man) act, depicting performers dressed as cowboys shooting a man from a cannon in a large arena; inset vignette of the cannon on display on a street. Two sheets.

Paper. Approx. 56 x 74".

Condition

Minor tears, chipping, and creases mainly at edges and folds. B+.

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