Step Right Up.

Below you will find a sample collection of fine French and American circus posters. These turn of the century gems could be described as beautifully strange. And that qualifies them as just perfect in my book. There are oceans of these to cull through on the Library of Congress. I will be posting another installment next week so please stay tuned. (Be sure to make the jump below to see an additional 3 posters.)

01. CIRQUE D’HIVER
Tissandier Collection. Created/Published: Paris, 1880-1900. Medium: Woodcut. Publisher: Stafford & Company, Nottingham.

02. THE ADAM FOREPAUGH & SELLS BROTHERS
(A troupe of pearl divers from Hawaii, Sandwich Islands … A veritable circus of the sea)
Created/Published: 1898. Medium: Chromolithograph. Publisher: Courier Company Litho, Buffalo, NY.

03. THE ADAM FOREPAUGH & SELLS BROTHERS
(The Phenomenal & Fearless Potters… Greatest of All Great Acrobatic Aerials)
Created/Published: 1900. Medium: Chromolithograph. Publisher: Courier Company Litho, Buffalo, NY.

04. RINGLING BROS, WORLD’S GREATEST SHOWS
(Rashetta Brothers… Marvelous Somersaulting Vaulters)
“Sensational, hazardous somersaulting exploits & indescribably accurate scientific vaulting evolutions. Feats of agility & daring that seem absolutely impossible. Now seen for the first time in America.”
Created/Published: 1900. Medium: Chromolithograph. Publisher: Courier Company Litho, Buffalo, NY.

05. EDEN CONCERT, ENL’VEZ L’BALLON
Tissandier Collection. Created/Published: Paris, 1884. Medium: Lithograph.

06. THE GREAT FOREPAUGH & SELLS BROTHERS (Phenomenal Acts of Contortion)
Created/Published: 1899. Medium: Chromolithograph. Publisher: Strobridge Litho Co., Cincinnati & New York.
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