Poster — Poster advertising The Pickle Family Circus at The Round House, Great Britain, 1981
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
1981
Poster in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (museum number S.4155-1995), made in Great Britain, dated 1981. The museum's brief description reads: Poster advertising The Pickle Family Circus, Round House, 16th December 1981.
Museum description: Typographic and pictorial posters advertising San Francisco's Pickle Family Circus season at The Round House, illustrated with an image of two standing clowns, one with a tuba, and one with a trombone and a balloon. Printed in red, blue, black and yellow on white paper The museum records it as Printing ink on paper, measuring Height 72.3 cm; Width 27.8 cm. These details come from the museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Historical context
The Pickle Family Circus was founded in San Francisco in 1975 by members of the Pickle Family Jugglers - Peggy Snider, Larry Pisoni, and Cecil MacKinnon. Operating on a charitable basis with collective decision making, all members of the circus had equal pay and backstage jobs. The circus became an important part of the renewal of the American circus, or the New Circus Movement that influenced the creation of Montreal's Cirque du Soleil in 1984. The company started touring in Northern California in 1975, and in 1981 secured the two-month winter residency at London's Round House that this poster advertised. Converted into a performing venue in 1964 from a railway turntable originally built in the Chalk Farm area of London in 1847, its circular auditorium has made it a popular and successful venue for circus. Larry Pisoni, Bill Irwin, and Geoff Hoyle were the circus clowns in its early days. After Irwin left in 1979, Pisoni and Hoyle worked as a duo, and are probably the clowns depicted on this poster. Clowns were always central to the circus, making multiple cameo appearances throughout the show and interacting with the other artists.
Physical characteristics
- Material
- paper, printing ink
- Dimensions
- Height 72.3 cm; Width 27.8 cm
Technical characteristics
- Technique
- Printing ink on paper
- Place recorded
- Great Britain
Identification
- Museum object name
- Poster
- Museum object number
- S.4155-1995
- Museum system number
- O1612896
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm the wider type, maker and catalogue references against a specialist reference.