Posted 5 years ago
Sarahnicol…
(1 item)
Hey all, i live by Sarasota where we have the Ringling museum. Theres a lot of circus history and stuff around here. Yestrerday, there was an auction of a bunch of old circus memorabilia being held. Apparently all of the stuff came right from Feld entertainment, which owns Ringling Bros now. Lots of things were sold such as elephant headresses, costumes, wagon wheels, etc. Those items are fairly easy to tell that they're originals so i never questioned the authenticity of the posters being auctioned, until, I did some deep diving on the web tonight. My dad and i purchased 5 posters. (4 pictured, the 5th is another version of the second pictured). Im afraid these might not have been actually used in the tours, but reprints (even though it came straight from the source). most of them do have a copyright date but they have been obviously folded and worn. They are all true half sheets except for the last pictured which is a true full sheet (i measured). I read an article that said if they are dated on front they are reprints so i'm a little bummed, but the article also said if they're correct sizes they should be real. Does anyone have any info on this? Not a huge loss if they are reprints, won most of these for a decent price (around 100$ each). If they are fake i wont have the heart to tell my dad, he'd most likely be devastated. Bought them to hang on our walls anyways. Any info or help would be appreciated! Hopefully these are legit :( Thanks for reading and possible help!
Also forgot to mention these are all supposedly from 1940's, auction company never said they were reprints, and most posters went for 300$+
Also I just read that all of Ringlings reprints have a prefixed "p" on the margains, these dont, however the ones with writing on the margins all say " Copyrighted (instert year), Ringling Bros and barnum and Bailey combined shows, INC'. sorry for so much info just really want to make sure.