The Magic Collection of Jim Rawlins

Thayer Master Blueprints. Los Angeles: Thayer, 1930s – 40s. Collection of over 100 original cloth “negatives” drawn directly from the files of Thayer, used to create the famous Master Blueprints offered and sold for decades through the Thayer’s catalogs. Illusions explained and diagrammed include many of the firm’s most famous, among them the Mummy Case, Buzz Saw, Morritt Cage, The Girl in the Drum, Zenith Water Fountain, New Flyto, Lester Lake Guillotine, and many more. Accomplished in black ink on white slick-backed linen, most measuring 16 x 19 ¼”. Housed in the original cardboard tubes as kept in the Thayer workshops, nearly all bearing typed labels describing their contents, many of these being green Thayer return address labels listing the company’s address as 929 Longwood Ave., Los Angeles (Brookledge). Moderate wear from age, but generally in good to very good condition. Thayer’s blueprints allowed purchasers to learn the secrets behind the firm’s famous illusions for a fraction of the cost of purchasing the heavy wooden props themselves. Many of the diagrams were drawn by the man who constructed and designed the tricks as well, Thayer’s shop foreman Carl Owen. Years later, at least one apt Owen pupil asked the master craftsman why certain details were missing in some of the blueprints. Owen reportedly chuckled as he replied, “Some plans are made for building; others are made for selling.”