This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/26/2022
Card Restoration Frame. Hamburg: Carl Willmann, ca. 1903. A chosen card, torn to pieces, reappears in the center of an elegant nickel-plated frame sitting on the magician’s table, well away from the performer. Unlike similar effects, the card reappears in the frame piece-by-piece, then jumps out of the frame into the magician’s waiting hand. It lacks only one corner, held by a spectator as a receipt of sorts from the outset. This is fit to the restored card, proving it to be the same pasteboard torn to pieces only moments before. Elaborate clockwork mechanism integrated into verso of frame operated on a timer. Height 19 ½”. With original key. A MECHANICAL MARVEL. From the Larson collection. See Salon de Magie, page 202. Purchased by Larson from Willmann for the tremendous sum of $155 in 1934, the basic mechanism for this effect was also utilized by Okito, who constructed several of his own versions. The device is accompanied by Larson’s handwritten notes regarding the performance and operation of the apparatus.