This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/25/2020
Berg/Nixon Switching Cabinet. Chicago: W.J. Nixon, 1930s [?]. Checker cabinet-type apparatus on a single tall central leg, decorated in the Okito style. Rotating the cabinet front-to-back operates the internal mechanism which switches the contents of the interior compartments. The stack of checkers transposes between the two compartments in the cabinet and the decorated canister on the table beside it. With Okito-type transfers decorating the base and cabinet. Includes shell/stack, canister, and solid checkers manufactured by Norm Nielsen. Height 25”. Finish lightly worn. Rare. Originally part of the famed Barbour collection, this device is a simplified version of the venerable Checker Cabinet that executes the exchange of the contents in each compartment of the cabinet by simply rotating the box on its central leg. Barbour, one of the most prominent collectors of magic apparatus of the first half of the twentieth century, amassed an impressive assortment of Okito and Nixon-made props such as this example, decorated in the Okito style.