Circus, Sideshow & Oddities

Raymond & Company’s Menagerie for 1847. Chrysarma. New York: Jared W. Bell, 1847. Elaborate colored poster advertising the menagerie of this little-known circus, the border of the poster filled with woodcuts of the animals the exhibition would feature. The center image depicts a “golden chariot,” a bandwagon, drawn by a team of sixteen horses. Text below announces Herr Driesbach, “The Lord of the Brute Creation.” 44 x 33”. Chipping, browning, stains, losses. Paper backing. Sold as-is. Still, a truly rare relic of the pre-Civil War era in American Circus. Driesbach, the animal trainer here partnered with Raymond, was promoted as a rival of and equal to the famous trainer Van Amburgh. According to Stuart Thayer, for a time, nearly every traveling menagerie in America was in some way controlled or owned (in whole or part) by Raymond.