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A COLLECTION of rare 125-year-old posters advertising a world-renowned circus billed as “the greatest show on the earth” have emerged for sale for US$30,000.
The posters were used to publicize the famed Barnum and Bailey traveling circus, which wowed crowds all over the globe in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
One of the posters — a 4-meter-long billboard poster made up of 12 sheets from 1890 — boasts of the show’s “7 open dens of trained wild beasts” and shows the cages being paraded round a circus ring.
Another, from 1916, advertises champion jumper James Teddy, billed as “the human aeroplane,” and pictures him leaping over various obstacles.
The poster promises Teddy “flies through the air without wings or springs” and says he will carry out “unparalleled feats at lofty heights.”
Others depict a dwarf jockey called Bagonghi, “Italy’s 0.92-m high champion rider,” and a group of clowns assembled in the big top.
The five rare posters have been put up for sale by American businessman Sanford Rich, who had previously displayed them on the walls of his renowned delicatessen Kopperman’s, an institution in St Louis, Missouri.
Experts have tipped the posters to fetch US$30,000 when they go under the hammer at Link Auctions in St Louis.
Susan Kime, from the auction house, said: “Barnum and Bailey was the most famous circus show in the world at the turn of the 20th century.
“People flocked from all over to see the show, which featured a real array of performers that you just don’t see these days.
“The posters were used to advertise the show and date back as far as 1890 and give a fascinating insight into a bygone era.
“They are incredibly striking, especially the billboard poster which is made up of 12 separate panels.
“The fact that it has survived this amount of time is amazing. The owner of the posters bought them in the 1980s and they became very famous in the city. He recently sold the restaurant and took the posters with him.”
The auction will be held Nov. 14. (SD-Agencies)
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