At Auction
For the circus enthusiast, items do still come up for sale – here’s a few notable highlights
Collectors tend to buy circusrelated antiques because of the fond memories evoked. The most common items at auction are the posters, photos and circus toys by makers such as Corgi, Britains and Charbens. Artworks and ceramics by Dame Laura Knight also appear occasionally, selling from £ 500 up to several thousand. Toys range from £50 for a single item to £ 300 for a set, while posters start at about £50 and can reach several hundred subject to age, rarity and condition. Handpainted artefacts such as signs, rides and costumes are rare, but are out there as most 20thcentury showmen sold o their e ects.
1) A copy of the stunning 1889 pop-up book International Circus by German illustrator Lothar Meggendorfer made £350 at Lyon & Turnbull in September 2015 against an estimate of £200-£400. These beautiful books usually sell for much more but this particular example was missing some sections.
2) A large and rare archive of 150 photographs of the circus of showman ‘Lord’ George Sanger dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries went under the hammer at Dominic Winter in October 2017, selling for £1,950 when it was expected to fetch £700-£1,000.
3) Harry Houdini’s leather and canvas straitjacket c1915 sold at Christie’s in London in November 2011 for £30,000 against an estimate of £15,000-£20,000.
4) A group of late 19th-century tinplate circus toys along with two Crawford’s biscuit tins shaped as a circus wagon and a lion’s cage sold for £500 at Lyon & Turnbull in January 2016 against an estimate of £300-£500.
5) In April 2010, a group of eight Circus dinner plates, designed in 1934 by Dame Laura Knight for Clarice Cliff, sold for £3,500 at Lyon & Turnbull. The estimate was £1,500-£2,000.