Specialties
Potter & Potter is a Chicago-based auction house with a worldwide reach. We offer collectibles, antiques, and art in a broad range of categories in over twenty sales each year. Our specialties include the following categories:
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Fine Art
From works on canvas to works on paper, we offer paintings, sculptures, ceramics, prints and multiples, Potter & Potter regularly offers works of art from a range of schools, both classic and contemporary.
Contact Specialist Aron Packeraron@potterauctions.com -
Magic
Recognized as the leading source for magicana - collectibles related to the art of magic - in the world today, Potter & Potter holds virtually every record in the field, regularly offering magic posters, books, Houdini memorabilia, and vintage magic props of all kinds. One recent sale of Houdini's Blooming Rosebush apparatus, for $324,000, is the highest price ever paid for any object in the field.
Contact Specialist Gabe Fajurigabe@potterauctions.com -
Coin-Op & Gambling
Slot machines, trade-stiumlators, vintage vending machines, playing cards, poker chips and virtually anything else related to games of chance are specialties of the house. Previous sales have included record-setting prices for rare books on poker and cheating, unusual handmade playing cards, and a rare finger-striker arcade machine from the firm of Charles Fey & Son.
Contact Specialist Gabe Fajurigabe@potterauctions.com -
Historical Memorabilia & Documents
Potter & Potter regularly offers historic collectibles of all types, from civil rights archives and posters to notable letters and manuscripts, civil war relics and political memorabilia, and objects owned by notable historical persons, including a typewriter owned by the creator of “The Shadow” Walter Gibson, John F. Kennedy’s Zippo lighter and the cross used to give him last rites, and Lee Harvey Oswald’s personally owned and worn dress suit.
Contact Specialist Joe Slabaughjoeslabaugh@potterauctions.com -
Circus & Wild West
From Buffalo Bill to Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey, Potter & Potter regularly offers material related to some of the "greatest shows on earth." Previous sales have featured giant sideshow banners (including a world record price result of $28,000), early advertisements and broadsides, circus wagons, carousel horses, carnival games, and even the entire circus exhibit from Chicago's Griffin Museum of Science & Industry.
Contact Specialist Gabe Fajurigabe@potterauctions.com -
Maps & Atlases
Our experts regularly offer rare maps and cartographic material. Recent results include the rare Collot map of the Ohio River ($16,800) and Mercator’s Atlas sive Cosmographicae… ($20,400). Potter & Potter also auctions scientific material: orreries, library and pocket globes, and early sundials.
Contact Specialist Chad Reingoldchad@potterauctions.com -
Fine Books & Manuscripts
From fine bindings to major works of literature, Potter & Potter has become a leader in the book auction field. We regularly offer rarities in a range categories: travel and exploration, natural history and science, important printed and manuscript Americana, fine press and printing, livres d’artiste, modern first editions, Americana, early printed books and illuminated texts. Recent sales include historic prices Herman Melville’s Moby Dick ($60,000), the signed Works of Mark Twain for a record $33,600, Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books ($28,800), and Hobbes’ Leviathan ($21,600).
Contact Specialist Chad Reingoldchad@potterauctions.com -
Pop Culture Memorabilia
Relics of the silver screen, including film props, posters and lobby cards, autographs, costumes and photographs, regularly cross the block at Potter & Potter. Vintage and collectible musical instruments, concert posters, and autographed memorabilia are also regularly featured in our sales. Disneyana, vintage toys, comic books, and animation art are regular offerings, including many single-consignor offerings. From silent-era posters to signed guitars, celebrity-owned memorabilia, and more, we regularly offer relics from the entertainment history.
Contact Specialist Joe Slabaughjoeslabaugh@potterauctions.com -
Vintage Posters
One of only a handful of auction houses worldwide to offer vintage posters in regular cataloged sales, Potter & Potter offers thousands of images at auction each year. From the art nouveau works of Alphonse Mucha and the advertising classics of Leonetto Cappliello, to the travel poster classics of David Klein and Stan Galli, our experts have handled an astonishing range of material in virtually every category.
Contact Specialist Joe Slabaughjoeslabaugh@potterauctions.com -
Photography
Over the past decade, P&P has handled some of the choicest material on the market including a massive album of William Henry Jackson photographs of the west ($22,800), rare unpublished Vivian Maier images, Margaret Bourke–White architectural photographs, famous portraits by Milton Greene, and Diane Arbus sideshow images.
Contact Specialist Aron Packeraron@potterauctions.com -
Oddities & the Unusual
Perhaps the only auction house in the world to specialize in the bizarre, the odd, and the unusual, Potter & Potter has brought to market pieces of Kurt Cobain's hair, lithographs advertising P.T. Barnum's Tattooed Man, sideshow gaffs, true crime photo archives, spirit photography of great significance, and even the contents of New York's Freakatorium museum and the personal collection of its proprietor, the noted sword swallower Johnny Fox.
Contact Specialist Gabe Fajurigabe@potterauctions.com -
Specialty Auctions & Single-Consignor Sales
Potter & Potter prides itself on bringing to market complete and important auctions from noted collectors. We have frequently represented substantial holdings auctioned over the course of multiple single-consignor sales. Likewise, the firm has gained a reputation for highly focused specialty sales. Among these are offerings of punk rock memorabilia; Disneyana, including theme park props and signs; the Richard Harris collection ("Cabinet of Morbid Curiosities"), and many more.
Contact Specialist Gabe Fajurigabe@potterauctions.com -
Folk & Outsider Art
Self-taught art from all major names regularly cross the block at Potter & Potter. The works of Mose Tolliver, Wesley WIllis, Howard Finster, Puvis Young, and their contemporaries make up major portions of our regular art auctions.
Contact Specialist Aron Packeraron@potterauctions.com