This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/28/2023
MASKELYNE, John Nevil (1839–1917). £1,000 REWARD BOX TRICK HANDBILL. London: J. Burgiss Brown, Printer, 1870s. Three paragraphs outline Maskelyne’s challenge to his naysayers, to prove they have “discovered the secrets of my Box trick; and (2) Produce a Box, and … show that it will stand the same tests of examination … to which I shall submit my own box….” Black ink on thin paper, 9 × 7¼". Scarce. The Box Trick was formative in Maskelyne’s career, as the mystery helped make him famous. Here, he challenges all comers to discover the secret of a large wooden chest he constructed – an apparently innocent trunk that he or his partner George Cooke could escape from once being locked inside, despite it having been minutely examined by a committee from the audience. Some historians argue this trick evolved into Houdini’s most famous illusion, The Metamorphosis, a nearly-instantaneous transposition of one performer on the outside of the box with another locked inside. Maskelyne developed and used the trunk for a much different purpose, however: as part of his perennially popular playlet, “Will, The Witch, and the Watchman,” a dramatic sketch punctuated with stage illusions that ran on and off at The Egyptian Hall for decades.