This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/26/2021
DAVIS, Hiram and Barney. Two “Pitch” Card Portraits of Barnum’s “Wild Men of Borneo.” New York: Obermüller & Kern, 1880s. Two full-length portraits of the famed Ohio brothers who worked for Barnum and in other circuses for decades. Cabinet card format. Photographer’s mounts with scalloped edges. Performer’s rubber stamp listing the price of each image as “10 cents” to versos. Very good. “Pitch” cards such as these, images sold by sideshow performers, were important sources of income for those acts working in sideshows and dime museums. Waino and Plutano were widely exhibited, earning a reported $200,000.00 over a 25-year span – a tremendous sum in the Victorian era. The sale of pitch cards such as these contributed significantly to that financial success.