Vanishing and Appearing Lamps. New York: R.S. Schlosser, 19...

Vanishing and Appearing Lamps. New York: R.S. Schlosser, 1910s. A lit electric lamp resting on a table vanishes in the blink of an eye, only to reappear elsewhere. Includes mechanical table with lamp on Kellar-style base, and matching collapsible (reappearing) lamp. Height of table 36". Restored to working order in 2015. RARE.

Though best known for his feather flowers, Schlosser also built mechanically complex props such as these lamps. The wire framework and cloth bodies were especially tricky to construction. Any and all of the items created in his New York workshop are rarities. In some sense, the Vanishing Lamp offered here is a precursor to the well-known DeLage/Marshall effect known as “The Fastest Trick in the World."