This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/26/2022
Dell O’Dell (Odella Newton). Dell O’Dell’s Double Blooming Rose Bush. New Haven: Petrie & Lewis (P&L), ca. 1945. A barren plant in a large pot sits at center stage. On command, it slowly blooms real flowers, which may be cut from the branches and distributed as souvenirs to the audience. Height 30”. Leaves and branches fragile with some worn or chipped. Likely repainted. Sold as-is. The only such model manufactured by P&L in this manner. Owned and used by famed nightclub magician Dell O’Dell. John A. Petrie patented his design for a faux rose bush that would grow real flowers slowly and visibly in real time. The Flowering Rose Bush was one of the most expensive and elaborate products offered for sale by his famed “house where tricks are born,” the Petrie & Lewis magic manufacturing company of New Haven, Connecticut. Dell O’Dell was a regular customer of the firm and used several custom-made props from Petrie’s workbench in her nightclub performances. While the P&L rose bush trick was a fine mechanism, it had a drawback: it could not be effectively performed surrounded. As such, O’Dell ordered a custom model of the trick from Petrie – the double-model offered here, which is essentially two of the standard P&L models built in to a single flowerpot. With this version, O’Dell could do what no other owners of the trick could: show the flowers growing from all sides, to everyone in her audience, even the members of the band sitting behind her while she worked in cabarets and nightclubs across America.