Saturday, June 21, 2008

Turn of the century 4-Paw & Sells #2


Scan10309, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

"Sid" about to be saddled up for parade in 1899.
To the uninformed, this show was owned by James A. Bailey, W.W. Cole, Peter and Lewis Sells and served to fill the void left while Barnum & Bailey toured Europe. Including Madison Sq. Garden and the usual New England route.

Posted by Buckles at 6/21/2008 06:29:00 AM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks like the 5 Graces Bandwagon behind the elephant. Is that a skyboard on it or another wagon behind it? I have never seen a picture of it with a skyboard.

21 June, 2008 11:13
Anonymous said...

Hal, it’s not the Five Graces but a very similar wagon imported from England in 1871. It was one of two magnificent telescoping wagons on the Howes Great London show that year. Both had three-dimensional carved tops, this one with a globe, the other with an elephant (see the original stereo photo I posted of the elephant telescoper on this blog and discussed last May 12). Both tops were ultimately removed, probably because of interference with telephone wires in the 1880s when fast-growing city telephone companies were rapidly stringing numerous wires across America’s main streets.

The so-called Five Graces was originally a telescoper constructed in 1878 for Forepaugh but it very much copied the design of the 1871 Howes Globe wagon, hence the frequent confusion. (Not to add to the confusion, but there was another import from England in the 1860s that also looked somewhat like the Graces and the Globe wagons—especially when illustrated in some newspaper advertising of the 1860s—but it disappears early enough that we don’t need to discuss it.)

A view of the Globe telescoper before its top was removed can be seen in the 1978 Dover paperback by Chappie Fox and Bev Kelley, “The Great Circus Street Parade in Pictures,” page 30 (compare it to the Five Graces with its telescoping unit pictured on page 28). If you don’t have this book, I have a copy of this same stereo that I can scan for the blog. Another view of the Howes Globe wagon after its top was removed but better showing the side carvings appeared on this blog last April 1, as “Forepaugh-Sells c1900 #4.” In that photo you only see the top of the box unit that once held the telescoping globe and no skyboard; in today’s photo you also see the carved skyboard in place that was added to the wagon.

An easy way to tell the difference between the Graces and Globe wagons is by comparing the thick curved scroll framing above and on each side of the ladies. And it was only the Howes Globe that had the distinctive boxy top after its telescoping unit was removed.

Dick Flint
Baltimore

22 June, 2008 11:22
Anonymous said...

Thanks Dick,I should have known if anybody knew it would be you. I have that book and will look up the photos. I knew that the 5 Graces was at one time a telescoping wagon, this wagon sure looks a lot like it though.
Thanks Again,
Hal Guyon

22 June, 2008 14:22

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