Marshall Field's Window Displays
The famous Marshall Field's Christmas Window Displays will be offered at public auction in our galleries on September 12, 2024. These pieces of Chicago history are from the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry collection. Click HERE to browse & bid, or attend the sale live and in-person.
Coin Op & Advertising
SEPTEMBER 12, 2024 • From arcade games of yesteryear to vintage vending machines, slot machines, and trade stimulators, this sale will feature coin-operated machines of all types. Complementing these mechanical marvels will be a host of vintage signs, and rare advertising objects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - and the iconic animatronic displays from Marshall Field's Christmas windows.
Counterculture and the 1960s
SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 • Ephemera, books, posters, and memorabilia from the movements that changed history - and the individuals that made those movements happen - will be the hallmarks of this auction. Also featured will be a range of memorabilia from arguably the most famous band of the era, The Grateful Dead, including posters, apparel, ephemera, and an enormous archive of show tapes.
Quicker than the Eye
Potter & Potter's Retail Store. Shop now for vintage magic, gambling, circus, and oddities. Our inventory includes used, rare, and out-of-print books, along with vintage magic posters, photographs, magic tricks, playing cards, and more.
Chicago Reader 2023: Best Auction House for the Fascinating and Rare
Potter & Potter was voted best auction house for the fascinating and rare by the Chicago Reader. "This isn’t your typical auction house. The eclectic items it’s sold over nearly two decades comprise a long and varied catalog of American history, nightmares, and illusions both real and manufactured."
Cabinet of Morbid Curiosities: The Richard Harris Collection
OCTOBER 2, 2024 • The singular focus of Richard Harris's collection was the macabre. This October, Potter & Potter will bring to market a range of rarities from his art collection, a singular gathering of works (textiles, paintings, sculptures, posters, drawings) that, while broad in form, were focused on a topic no one has yet been able to escape.
The Collection of Edwin A. Dawes • Part II
OCTOBER 26, 2024 • This second sale from the Dawes collection is quite literally a "rich cabinet" of conjuring curiosa. Posters, antiquarian books, vintage apparatus and more from this storied collection go on the block this October.
Upcoming Auction
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Cabinet of Morbid Curiosities: The Richard Harris Collection
Potter & Potter is excited to announce Cabinet of Morbid Curiosities: The Collection of Richard Harris. On offer is comprehensive collecting in many areas, notably the tragedy of wars through the years and other subjects including anatomy and medical imagery, addressing figures such as skeletons and skulls and crossbones in our collective unconscious culture. The art ranges from Renaissance prints to contemporary art, vernacular photography to contemporary photojournalism, historical art and ephemera from wars of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Folk Art, ethnographica, anatomy and medical subjects are also included. While it is clearly a macabre offering, it rings true as a positive group of works that have plenty of humorous aspects and also compels us to examine our eventual ends.
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The Collection of Edwin A. Dawes • Part II
This second sale from the Dawes collection is quite literally a "rich cabinet" of conjuring curiosa. The sale features rarities galore, from unique props used by Professor J.M. Hartz and Chung Ling Soo to stone lithographs advertising Harry Houdini's earliest performances; rare conjuring books from the seventeenth century and beyond; postcards, photographs, periodicals, and ephemera; and virtually every other type of magic collectible extant.
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Vintage Posters
Our fall poster sale features vintage paper advertising in many categories. From masterworks by Mucha to travel, war & propaganda, we will offer over 500 lots from a range of well-known designers, printers, and publishers.