Salon de Magie: The Klosterman Collection Part I

Evanion, Henry. M. Evanion the Royal Conjurer. London: Williams and [?], ca. 1870. Two-color letterpress poster with four wood-engraved vignettes of Evanion’s performance, including his production of a giant pagoda (“a tree changed into a pagoda illuminatd by Chinese fire”) and “Indian Flower Trees,” the Japanese Butterfly and Fan trick and top trick among them. Gilt wooden frame, 43 ½ x 33 ¼". Evanion was not only a magician of note with an enviable list of credits in Victorian England, he was also one of the first notable collectors of magicana. Among the many treasures he saved were broadsides, posters, and ephemera that eventually found their way in to the collection of Harry Houdini.