Select Secrets: Rare & Important Magicana

[Blackstone] Salla, Salvatore. Portrait of Magician Harry Blackstone Sr. Chicago, 1942. Oil on canvas half-length portrait of the great American stage illusionist, portrayed in tan coat and patterned yellow tie with red and green accents. In the original gilt wooden frame, 28 ½ x 24 ½”. Inscribed and signed by the artist below the portrait in ink: “To the “World’s Greatest” / Harry Blackstone / from his / affectionate friend / S. Salla / Chicago, Ill. 1942.” The verso of the frame signed in ink by Blackstone, “Harry Blackstone / Colon, Mich.” A few tiny chips to the image, else very good. Persian by birth, Salla (1903 – 1991) emigrated to the United States in 1920 and became a professional artist in 1923. He settled in Chicago, where the bustling local magic scene welcomed him with open arms. Salla taught at the American Academy of Art, and his works were exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago. The combination of his vocation and avocation led to two of his best-known paintings: a portrait of Okito performing the Floating Ball, and a panoramic collage of members of the Chicago Magic Roundtable. The latter work featured Harry Blackstone among some hundred other magicians; the two men met at these daily informal gatherings of magicians in the Windy City that took place on and off for decades, at a variety of restaurants. These works now hang in places of prominence at the Magic Castle in Hollywood.