Salon de Magie: The Klosterman Collection Part II

Alexander (Claude Alexander Conlin). Alexander’s Sawing a Woman In Half Illusion. Los Angeles: F.G. Thayer, 1921. Early model of the classic stage illusion in which a woman, placed in the crate with her feet, head, and hands extending through slots in either end, is sawn in two by the magician yet remains unharmed. Sturdy wooden construction with foot gimmick as devised by David Swift and first constructed by Carl Owen for Thayer in 1921. Several convincing features allow a clear view of the assistant before the sawing takes place, and the addition of the gimmick allows the effect to be performed without a second assistant. Box measures 58 x 21 x 37” (not including sawhorses). Minor wear to all parts throughout, but generally in good working condition. A well-made early example of what is, arguably, the most famous illusion of the modern era. In Mike Caveney’s One Hundred Years of Sawing (2021), the author discusses Alexander’s Sawing illusion, built by Carl Owen at the Thayer shop, in great detail. “[Carl] claimed that by the time he saw the Selbit Sawing performed, he had already built a Sawing in Half illusion for Claude Conlin…and the method involved just one girl and a set of false legs. This, of course, is the same method that had been created by The Great Leon.” At the time it was purchased by Alexander, the advertised price of the illusion was $175. Alexander made his purchase after a theater fire in Daveport Iowa on April 26 leveled the theater and destroyed his entire show. This prop is among the first to be constructed by Carl Owen, who in the following decades would go on to develop the modern Thin Model Sawing and is nearly universally regarded as one of the finest illusion builders of modern times.