Summer Magic Auction - Online Only

Tarbell, Harlan. Important Archive of Harlan Tarbell Letters, Manuscripts, and Ephemera. 1910s – 40s. Including a lengthy and detailed three-page letter to H.S. Paine dated Sept. 8, 1915, in which Tarbell humorously describes and illustrated methods for producing dry handkerchiefs from a bowl of water, and discusses fooling Howard Thurston with a “palm” gimmick; a two-page manuscript describing and illustrating Tarbell’s own “Magic Cookie-Ry” routine for baking cookies in a hat; a handful of typewritten instructions, some signed, for Tarbell-invented tricks or ideas for marketed magic tricks, including the Pentrative Card, Nail Thru Tongue, Cigarette Catching, Conjuror’s Handibox, and Vanishing Cane; two theatre programs, two brochures, and one handbill for an appearance at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the latter accompanied by a handwritten outline of Tarbell’s entire 19-part program at the performance. Generally very good condition. Tarbell’s career as a magic illustrator began with work for Read & Covert of Chicago, but shortly thereafter, he found a friend and collaborator in Herman Sanford Paine of the Chicago Magic Company. Several of the letters and notes in this archive, addressed to Paine, may have been written during Tarbell’s military service in WWI. Various lines indicate that while stationed in Europe, Tarbell was both sending home ideas to Paine for eventual production by the Chicago Magic Co., and sourcing tricks or manufacturers of various props for Paine, as well. One note indicates that Tarbell has ordered six-dozen of a certain “box” from the famous Parisian magic dealer DeVere, which will be sent back to Chicago for eventual sale. Tarbell returned to America shell-shocked, but eventually recovered, and went on to author and illustrate the most famous magic course of all time, the Tarbell Course in Magic. These manuscripts and letters show evidence of Tarbell’s thinking in a way that foreshadows the way he would write and illustrate that Course, and also a sense of humor not generally encountered in his writing.