GUEST: This is a collection of circus memorabilia and Wild West Show. My grandfather ran away from home when he was 12 years old. And he went on a sailing vessel. On the sailing vessel, he learned about rigging and taking care of the sails. And because of that, he had the experience when he went into the circus to do that type of work. So he worked for various circuses throughout his lifetime. He went from Barnum & Bailey to the Wild West Show. And then tell me about your grandmother. My grandmother, she came from Budapest, and originally, she was a ballerina at the Budapest Opera House. And from there, that's how she joined the circus. I guess she ran out of work. She met my grandfather, they married in New Orleans, and the rest is history.
APPRAISER: And what year would that have been?
GUEST: About 1906 when they got married.
APPRAISER: And your grandfather started working for the circuses in about 1902?
GUEST: 1902, right. And he was a chief rigger, and then he became property manager. So he had to take care of all the items that got destroyed because of, maybe a train wreck, or there was a cyclone. And he had to take pictures of all this, so I have all the original pictures.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: And then my grandmother went further, and she cut out pictures and articles in the newspaper about what happened to verify what he was doing.
APPRAISER: Yeah. We had hundreds of images to go through in the form of real photo postcards, mounted photographs. You also had lots of documents and letterhead signed by the owners of the circuses right here-- 101 Ranch, Barnum & Bailey Circus, signed by one of the brothers there. And that one is a authentic pen signature. This is just a sampling of what you have here in the binders.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: We have a couple of real photo postcards here, one that was taken while the circus tent was on fire.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And then above, we have one after a cyclone damage. We rarely, if ever, see images like this-- you're going to see some of the circus freaks, you're going to see images of the circus in action. But these type of images are rarely seen. On the bottom here, we have a cabinet card photo of Pawnee Bill, who was partners with Buffalo Bill. And the top image, it says "sole survivor of Mount Pelée volcano." And this was in St. Pierre, Martinique, and the volcano was in 1902. 30,000 to 40,000 people perished in that volcano, and it's recorded that there were two survivors, is all. And you know why he survived? He was in prison, and there was poor ventilation in his cell.
GUEST: Oh!
APPRAISER: His name is Ludger Sylbaris, and of course, being in the circus, they went ahead and advertised it as the sole survivor. Well, to start off with the programs, and you have quite a few here. But the one we've put up here is going to be a good general example of what the rest are. They're going to be worth between about $50 to $100 each at auction, and the signed letterhead from the circus owners are going to range in value from $75 up to $250 each.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The cabinet photo of Pawnee Bill, I would expect that at auction to bring between $400 and $600.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: The great images here in the real photo postcards would sell at auction for between, on the low end of $75 to $100 each, up to as high as $250 each for some of those fabulous images that you have.
GUEST: Oh... (sighs)
APPRAISER: And the photo of Ludger Sylbaris, I consulted several other appraisers that deal in antique photographic images, and nobody has seen an image of him before in the form of a mounted photo like that. And easily we would say at auction, we would expect that to bring between $1,000 and $2,000.
GUEST: (gasps and exhales)
APPRAISER: It's one of the rarest images we've seen of anybody involved in the circus in years. The collection you brought in today in total, I'd put an estimate at auction for between $12,000 and $16,000.
GUEST: Oh, wow, wow.
APPRAISER: There's just so many beautiful pieces in there.
GUEST: Thank you so much. I have to thank my grandma and grandpa for doing this for me.
