Houdiniana & Magic Memorabilia

[SCRAPBOOK] Remarkable Victorian Magic Scrapbook. A repurposed ledger, compiled in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s in London and filled with magic ephemera, instructions, letters and manuscripts, most likely assembled by British conjurer “Professor Era,” the stage name of a Mr. T. Edmonds. Included are printed programs, broadsides, posters, and heralds for a host of notable performers, including The Fays, Signor Bosco, a color wood-engraved poster for Professor Era (margins trimmed away), Dr. Holden (two different pictorial programs, Adalbert Frikell (including a program for his appearance at Sandringham in 1878), Dr. Cavendish (several different programs), Maskelyne & Cooke and the Egyptian Hall, Alexander Herrmann at the Egyptian Hall (two different programs), Professor Pepper and Tobin at Egyptian Hall, The Fakir of Ava and his Dark Séance, a free pass for the show of ventriloquist Frederic Maccabe, two Buatier de Kolta programs (one at the Egyptian Hall), a handbill advertising Madame Gilliand Card “the world-famed wizard queen,” an Evanion program, several programs for Dr. Lynn (Hugh Simmons), and many more. Literature and letters from magic dealers include articles for the shows and shops of Joseph Bland (including a rare ANS), Robert Hellis (including cards for his printing company), Hamley, Frank Hiam, W.J. Judd, and others. These objects include price lists, small catalogs, pictorial instruction sheets, broadsides, and receipts. Other contents include a chapbook, The Great Wizards’ Handbook of Magic (see Toole Stott 320); tickets and broadsides for Punch & Judy shows, missing children, letterpress broadsides advertising Christmas entertainments and dissolving view shows, and related performances in and around London; and numerous news clippings on magic and related topics. Approximately twenty leaves are filled with the former owner’s handwritten instructions for a wide range of parlor tricks and stage illusions, some of them accompanied by crude illustrations. A host of manuscript letters have been tipped in, among their authors J.N. Maskelyne (two ALSs, one on Egyptian Hall stationery), Buatier de Kolta (writing from Egyptian Hall), Mr. W. Morton (the manager of the Egyptian Hall, written on Egyptian Hall letterhead; several ALSs included), The “Original” Professor Stodare, and many more. Small folio, bound in full vellum. Approximately 200 pages, three-quarters of which are filled. Page edges chipped, binding soiled, with chips, tears, and wear as expected and a few pages clipped, but both pages and contents generally sound and in good to very good condition, with many items tipped in by their extreme edges only. A remarkable collection of ephemera from a storied time in the history of conjuring, as Maskelyne & Cooke and their contemporaries set a new standard for stage magic, and perhaps the most significant offering of its type we have brought to auction.