This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/25/2023
LAFAYETTE (Sigmund Neuberger, 1871-1911). The Great Lafayette. The Most Wonderful Magician, Musician, Mimic, and Wizard of Modern Days. London, ca. 1902. Handbill advertising the famed quick-change artist and magician at the London Hippodrome with a six-part program including entering the stage in his “locomobile,” a “travesty on the greatest conjuror who ever lived – Ching Ling Foo, a Chinaman,” and the “imitation of a Hebrew conducting an orchestra,” among other feats. 6 1/2 x 4 1/8”. Pinhole in upper left, corner clipped, else good. An early Lafayette handbill. As famous for his life as for his death, Lafayette, one of the highest paid acts of his day, died in a theater fire in Edinburgh in 1911 under tragic circumstances, as he rushed back into the conflagration to save the horse used in his production. A reported 250,000 spectators lined the streets to watch his funeral procession. His cremains were buried in a tiny casket between the paws of his beloved dog, Beauty, who predeceased the magician by only a few weeks.