This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/9/2023
[BLACKSTONE] Hotsie Totsie Bathing Beauty. Colon, MI: Blackstone Magic Co., ca. 1928. A painting on cloth of a seaside “bathing beauty” is shown. The cloth is folded in half and the magician reaches inside, removing the bather’s cape, then swimsuit. When the painting is unfolded it has been transformed. The tide has come in, covering her body and protecting her dignity. Hand painted and sewn. 15 x 23 ½". With the original miniature bathing costume and cape. Very mild soiling. SCARCE.
Owned by Percy Abbott and Harry Blackstone, Sr., the doors of The Blackstone Magic Co. remained open for only 18 months. A disagreement between the partners shuttered the business. Consequently, everything the company manufactured is scarce or rare, in particular the few pieces of three-dimensional apparatus it produced.