POTSDAM, N.Y. – The focus was on early manuscript maps, town-founding documents, business and personal papers and the library amassed by Col. Elisha Camp and his wife of Sacket’s Harbor, N.Y., at Blanchard Auction Services’ online auction on March 28. Some bidders, however, were more interested in entertainment than scholarship. “It wasn’t our top selling lot at the auction but was by far the biggest surprise,” said Sue Blanchard regarding a bright, color-printed 1848 circus poster that sold for $19,200, including buyer’s premium. The well-preserved, thickish wove paper elephant folio broadside promoting Raymond & Waring’s Menagerie measuring 40¾ by 28¾ inches was printed by J. Booth, Corner of Ann & Nassau Street, New York City. Intentional internal blanks completed in bold manuscript advertised the menagerie’s appearance at Granville Corners [New York or Vermont?] on Monday August 7, 1848, from 2 to 5 o’clock. The principal illustration at the poster’s center is New York’s City Hall with a crowd stylishly dressed à  la mode in front. Blanchard’s noted that the huge poster is excellent testimony to the New York City’s printer’s stock of display caps, animal relief cuts and colored inks. A more extensive recap of this sale will follow.