Salon de Magie: The Klosterman Collection Part I

[Stuart Judah] Archive of Stuart Judah Magic Notes. Over 100 pages, primarily typewritten, and collected by John Braun to record the magic tricks, sleights, and routines of his friend Stewart Judah. Among the effects described are the Gilbreath Poker Deal, Ten Card Poker Demonstration, Triple Coincidence, Wild Card with Seven Cards, Don Alan’s Blank Deck Routine, Coin in Bottle, Simple Version of Triumph, and many more. Many annotations in margins, as well as crude illustrations and notes, either in the hand of Braun or Judah. Handwritten and typewritten on 4to sheets, and including one ANS to Braun from Judah outlining the construction of a paddle effect. Sold with a copy of Judah notes kept by Paul Swinford, and a 10 x 8" matte-finish full-length photograph of John Braun and Judah taken in 1938. A fascinating archive of tricks and methods developed by a noted Cincinnati sleight-of-hand magician and recorded by his close friend and confidant, both of them mentors to Ken Klosterman. Judah and Braun were lifelong friends, first collaborating on the book Subtle Problems You Will Do (Abbott’s, 1937). Judah was held in high esteem by his peers, and in John Northern Hilliard’s Greater Magic was one of ten elite “card stars” whose effects were published along with those of Annemann, Vernon, and Cardini. As Hilliard wrote, “Mr. Judah’s specialty is in the presentation of clean-cut effects of a mysterious kind at the closest of quarters. He has none of the flair of the professional trickster but he looms extravagantly in the field of magic. I’d rather see him do a card trick than go to a convention. I have few longings. One of the most insistent is – to be able to present one cabalistic card problem with the savoir fair of Stewart Judah.”