Joyland Books has been instructed to sell the circus collection of the late Ken Wise. One of the most important collections of circus memorabilia in the country, it includes circus invitation cards, promotional literature, programmes, magazines, auction catalogues and booklets, mainly from the 1920s to the 1970s.

The collection has been split into 10 different lots, details of which are below. To bid for one or more of the lots, please email info@joylandbooks.com, including your name, address and telephone number, the number of the lot(s) you are bidding on and how much you are offering. We will reply confirming that your bid has been received and will give you a Bidder Number. We will display the current highest bid for each lot, which will be updated every 24 hours. This will identify the Bidder Number but not the name of the person who currently is the highest bidder. The identity of bidders will always be kept confidential.

Once an opening bid has been received, subsequent bids for each item must be £10 or more greater than the previous bid. So if the current bid is £30, the next bid must be £40. In this example, a bid of £31 would not be accepted. The use of bid increments is standard practice in auctions.

Please note that we are not operating proxy bidding. The full amount that you bid will be published on the website as your current bid (assuming it is the highest bid!).

At the end of the auction, the highest bidder for each item will be notified. Payment should then be made within 3 working days by credit card, PayPal or by sending a cheque. Postage and packing is £2.99 per lot. For international delivery rates click here.

The auction ends at 8pm on Thursday 28 April 2011

A spreadsheet is available providing details of all the items, and it is recommended that you view this before bidding. All items have been photographed and the photo galleries can be viewed by clicking on the images below. View spreadsheet with details of all lots