1938 Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Poster
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GUEST:
I got it from my father-in-law. He was a high school art teacher, and he collected posters. And he produced posters during World War II. And this was one of his, in his collection.
APPRAISER:
And how long have you had it?
GUEST:
We've had it about ten years. I don't know how long he had it before that.
APPRAISER:
There are some important differences between this and many other circus posters. The first thing is that it is larger than usual.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And that's because it's a four-sheet circus poster. There are one-sheet posters, there are six-sheet, there are eight-sheet, there are 12-sheet and there are 24-sheet gigantic barn signs, but this is a four-sheet. And very interestingly, on the back, there's one place where it actually has a stamp on it that says, "four-sheet, black leopards poster." When a poster is linen-mounted, the stuff that's printed on the back is covered up so you can't see it. So on this non-linen mounted poster, it's completely visible. Also, it has been pasted together. Originally it would have been four separate sheets that were just pasted up onto the wall. So it's nice to see these four sheets put together in a rather archival and good way. I also see a poster that's printed by one of the preeminent lithography companies in America, the Strobridge Litho. Company. The Strobridge Litho. Company really did wonderful posters. And posters that were printed by them carry somewhat of a premium in the collecting market. I also see something else. I see by you the name "Alfred Court," as the animal trainer who's being promoted. But if you notice, that's actually a separate piece of paper that has been not so expertly applied.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And what that is covering is the name of an earlier animal trainer, Terrell Jacobs, who had worked for Ringling Brothers prior to this. Doing my research, I discovered that Terrell Jacobs, who is literally known as the "lion king," who worked for 16 different circuses throughout the course of his life, only worked for Ringling Brothers in 1938 and 1939.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
So this poster was printed in 1938. But then it was adopted for Alfred Court, who worked for Ringling Brothers between 1940 and 1945. The one-sheet version of this, the 27 by 41 inch single-sheet version of this sells at auction for $1,400.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
Now, this is bigger, this is more dramatic, it has much better wall presence. But there's no record of it coming up for sale. So I consulted with some of my colleagues at the collectibles table, and we feel that at auction, a conservative estimate for this would be between $3,000 and $4,000.
GUEST:
Ooh, good.
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