Select Secrets: Rare & Important Magicana

Cardini (Richard Valentine Pitchford). Cardini’s Stage-Worn Tuxedo. London: Sidney Fisher, 1933. Single-button wool swallowtail coat with striped pants, tailor-made for Cardini, and worn by the great manipulative magician in performance. With the tailor’s label sewn in the pants and dated in ink “Jan. 1933.” Together with a set of Cardini’s spats, silk pocket handkerchief, silk cravat, celluloid collar, dress shirt (from Selfridge’s of London), and top hat (the latter with a faint dent). The dress shirt bears cigarette burns from performance use in Cardini’s famous manipulative magic act. With a letter of provenance from Cardini’s daughter, to whom the costume was passed by descent.