This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/26/2024
DEVANT, David (David Wighton, 1868 – 1941). David Devant’s Own St. George’s Hall Program. London: Bradley & Son, Ltd., 1917. Eight-page one-color program for a five-act program at the “New Home of Mystery” featuring J.N. Maskelyne, Warwick Pryce, Besoni, and two magical playlets. Small ink stain on front wrap, else near fine condition. DAVID DEVANT’S own program, with a ticket stub for the performance laid in bearing his inked notation scrawled on the verso: “Mrs. D & I visited St. G.H. 4 first time since rupture.”A significant piece of British magic history in that Devant, at one time the financial (and perhaps artistic) savior of St. George’s Hall and a partner in the Maskelyne enterprise, was fired from his position as a managing director of the company in 1915. The ticket stub laid inside this program explains how, after nearly two years away from the theater he called home, this performance – featuring none other than his old partner and boss, John Nevil Maskelyne – marked the first time Devant had set foot inside St. George’s Hall since his “rupture” with the Maskelyne family and his dismissal from the company.