Five Rare Books for Collectors: Magic Books
The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase
Highlights from Potter & Potter Auctions' June 8 Magicana sale featuring books and other material from the collection of the late Peter Hackhofer includes:
* The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase (pseudonym). Chicago: Author, 1902. First edition. Illustrated with over 100 drawings “from life” by Marshall D. Smith.
* The Old & The New Magic by Henry Ridgely Evans. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Co., 1909. Portrait frontispiece of Robert-Houdin, plates and illustrations. Signed and date on the flyleaf by Houdini: “Harry Handcuff Houdini / Sept. 12 1916.”
* The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin by Harry Houdini (Erik Weisz, 1874 – 1926). New York: The Publishers Printing Co., 1908. First edition. List of illustrations tipped in at rear as issued. Inscribed and signed on the flyleaf in ink
by Houdini: “To Carey Wilson / Best Wishes from / the author/ Harry Handcuff / Houdini / December 14/1918.” Wilson’s bookplate is affixed to the pastedown. Carey Wilson was a screenwriter, voice actor, and producer who wrote the screenplays for Ben Hur (1925), and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and was one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
* Ben Ali-Bey (Max Auzinger, 1839 – 1928) archive of correspondence, photographs, and ephemera, 1880s – 1920s. More than 150 items, including holographic letters, typed notes, postcards, programs, glass slides, silver print photographs, clippings, magazines, and other ephemera related to the life and career of the magician and his family. An important grouping of ephemeral material related to this influential performer long considered the first famous presenter – and perhaps the inventor – of Black Art.
* Collection of magicians’ bookplates, 1900s – 60s, and including examples for David Devant, The
Magic Circle (at St. George’s Hall), Robert Lund, Stanley Collins (two examples, both inscribed and signed), Dunninger (inscribed and signed), Roland Winder, George Daily, Henk Vermeyden, De Vega, James Alfredson, Jean de Merry, F. William Kuethe (two different), Johnny Morgan, Paul Fleming Topper Martyn, Ernest Noakes, Newmann, Ptinos (signed by Pratt), Harry Price (two different), Leo Rullman, Rudolf Rieth, Geoffrey A. Robinson, Thomas Worthington, Gustl Schieb, Hugo Laemmle, Robelly, and George Johnson.
