The Ricky Jay Collection

HERRMANN, Alexander (1844 – 96). Herrmann. Decapitation. [Poster Maquette]. Chicago: The Jeffrey Printing Co., ca. 1878. Hand painted poster maquette presenting a dark and menacing scene. Herrmann stands beside a horrified man with a large knife (or possibly razor) in his hand. The man’s eyes bulge as the magician draws the steel across the hapless victim’s neck, and blood visibly flows. A giant winged demon surveys the scene from behind the conjurer and his victim, with red wings outstretched above the grisly tableaux. At the right appears a glass-fronted cabinet, and at the left, a table laden with a globe, skull, and other accoutrements. Two disembodied heads float below the caption at the bottom of the image. 27 3/4 x 20 7/8”. Scattered scuffs, chips, and old crease lines, some restored. Linen backed. This is the only Herrmann poster maquette with which we are acquainted, and one of but a handful of maquettes known for any poster produced during magic’s great “golden age.” Herrmann performed the decapitation illusion in two different ways. The version pictured here was a comedic turn of sorts, despite the dark overtones of the painting. A country rube stumbled on stage with what was described as a “buzzing” in his skull. Herrmann approached him in the role of quack doctor and placed a “receiver” over the man’s head, as the patient reclined in a long-backed chair. With a quick stroke of a giant razor, Herrmann lopped off the man’s head, picked up the “receiver” (which looked much like a diving helmet) and placed it atop a black lacquered cabinet with two glass doors at its front. The front of the helmet was opened, and the decapitated head was seen within – alive, smiling, and blinking. The disembodied head then conversed with Herrmann and members of the audience before being reunited with the lifeless body seated some distance away across the stage. The scene closed on the patient having been cured, both of his headache and his run-in with the overzealous barber-magician. H.J. Burlingame discussed the effect at length in his biography of Herrmann published in Chicago in 1897. The decapitation effect has been popular with conjurers for nearly five centuries, an illustrated descriptions of the effect appears in the foundational textbook on the art, Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft (London, 1584), regarded by most authorities as the first significant work in English to describe the methods behind magic tricks. Interestingly, Harry Jansen, who became famous as the stage illusionist Dante, also featured a Decapitation illusion (played for laughs) in his stage show titled “The Un-Sevilled Barber,” which was modeled quite closely on Herrmann’s version. Dante used a giant razor to perform the gruesome act, and a large mask over the head of the “customer,” instead of Herrmann’s diving-helmet-like “receiver.”