Salon de Magie: The Klosterman Collection Part I

Germain, Karl (Charles Mattmuller). Germain’s Blooming Rose Bush. Cleveland, ca. 1900. Carved wooden table with three cabriole legs ornamented by winged figures at the top of each supporting a thin wooden table top. The magician shows an empty flowerpot, fills it with earth, and plants a seed inside. The pot is set on the table and the magician then waves a paper fan over the pot. As he does, a green plant begins to grow from inside, slowly developing into a green rose bush replete with real red flowers. The plant finally reaches full bloom, and the magician cuts the flowers from their stems, distributing them to the audience to conclude the experiment in visible, magical horticulture. Hand-carved wooden table with gold leaf finish, concealing a complex yet elegant cable-wound mechanical device to produce the flowers. Height of table 33 ¾". Includes hand crank, cloth pouch for soil, imitation rose bush, and original packing case bearing Germain’s name stenciled in white on the lid, the latter including compartments for Germain’s Water Jars. One of the most storied, poetic, and remarkable creations of Karl Germain, and arguably his best-known illusion. See Salon de Magie, 210 – 213, and Germain the Wizard, page 159. Constructed by Germain’s father, the Growing Rose Bush is among his significant creations. While Kellar made a trademark of the production of two real rose bushes, his productions required more cumbersome props; the plants appeared under the cover of very large cones held in Kellar’s hands. Germain approached the effect as if it were meant to be a genuine miracle: the rose bush grows on an undraped, elegant tabletop, with no apparent assistance or influence from the magician. In Germain’s version, the rosebush grows as if time-lapse photography were being witnessed in real life – the plant and flowers simply appeared in the flowerpot shown empty, then filled with earth only moments before. Other builders of magic apparatus came close to Germain’s ideal, but none succeeded. As Germain himself stated as he concluded his performance of the trick, “This is no illusion, optical delusion, or hallucination. I assure you, it is reality.”