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Silhouette Portrait Paperweight: P. T. Barnum

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Historic Americana

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"Phineus T. Barnum - Exhibitor Extraordinary" Silhouette Portrait Paperweight

c. 1840, Glass Paperweight, with P. T. Barnum Silhouette Portrait, Extremely Fine.
This 3" round, clear glass paperweight has under its spherical dome a silhouette profile portrait of P. T. Barnum, surrounded by the inscription: "Phineus T. Barnum - Exhibitor Extraordinary." His first name is here spelled with "U" instead of "A." Surrounding the inscription and portrait is a border of some sort of black crystals, perhaps mica. The flat, slightly recessed bottom of this paperweight has a plain green card cover. This paperweight is in excellent condition, having only a very tiny chip on its rim. An exceedingly rare and highly unusual souvenir of the famous American showman. A great, historic Paperweight, the first we have ever encountered.

Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891), better known as P. T. Barnum, was a famous American showman, who in 1841 bought the American Museum, a collection of conventional exhibits in New York City, and transformed it into a carnival of live freaks and dramatic curiosities, which he promoted with sensational publicity. He exhibited the midget Tom Thumb and brought Jenny Lind (the "Swedish Nightingale") to the United States for a profitable concert tour in 1850. By the time his museum closed in 1868 after several fires, 82 million people had viewed it. In 1871 he started a circus and in 1881 joined a rival, James A. Bailey (1847–1906), to form the three-ring Barnum and Bailey's Circus, which featured the elephant Jumbo as part of the "Greatest Show on Earth."

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