Salon de Magie: The Klosterman Collection Part I

Nicola (William Mozart Nicol). WWI Diary of Illusionist Will Nicola. Dated 1918 and filled with entries in ink and pencil in Nicola’s hand, the diary logs his travels and tribulations, chronicling the locations he was stationed, but also several in which he performed, and the various effects and stunts he planned to promote his show, including jail escapes (entries note Nicola examining various handcuffs he will later escape from), addresses of various friends and suppliers (Caroly the magic dealer, among others), crude drawings and notes on various tricks, and other related information. Most of the travel notes made in the diary chronicle Nicola’s time in France. Gilt-edged pages, but disbound with original leather binding perished. Housed in a custom-made wooden case with hinged lid and felt-lined inner compartment, and accompanied by a large format glass plate negative of Nicola as a young man wearing an imitation mustache (possibly his brother, Chas. Nicol), performing various tricks, and a small group of business cards bearing Nicola’s name, along with his signed membership card in an Officer’s Club. A fascinating document dealing with the first Great War and one magician who lived through it to tell the tale.