This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/25/2023
BISHOP, Washington Irving (1855 – 89). MR. V. IRVING BISHOP. SÉANCE. Karlstad, Sweden: Carl Kjellin & Co., 1884. One-sheet letterpress poster in black ink on dark blue paper advertising Bishop’s performance at a Masonic hall, and attesting to his performances before British Royalty, and asserting that this will be his only appearance in Karlstad. 33 ¼ x 24 ½”. Splitting at old folds, creasing at extremities, pinholes at fold intersections. Rare. The only poster for Bishop we have encountered. Bishop is perhaps as well known for his peculiar death as much as his peculiar mind reading ability. His career began as an assistant to J. Randall Brown, but soon enough his talents as a muscle reader and mentalist allowed him to forge a successful solo stage career. Bishop met a sad end when a cataleptic or narcoleptic episode during a performance at New York’s Lamb’s Club gave the appearance he had lapsed into a coma. The physicians who examined him had no knowledge of Bishop’s condition, so pronounced him dead and conducted an autopsy. Forever after, his grief-stricken mother trumpeted that her son had been murdered unwittingly by the procedure.