Product Type
Condition
Binding
Collectible Attributes
Seller Location
Seller Rating
Published by Magic Circle, 1980
Seller: Shore Books, London, United Kingdom
Magazine / Periodical
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 28 pages. Illustrated. Alan Snowden"Backstage" / Edwin A Dawes "A Rich Cabinet of Magical Curiosities No.66 Charles Lang Neil" / S H Sharpe "Through Magic-Coloured Spectacles" / Peter D Blanchard "'Magicians at Westminster'" / G E Arrowsmith "Out-of-the-Ordinary?" / Robert Freeman "The Human Seal and Billy Damon? Illusionists?" / Jack F Sellinger "The Card Magic of Major Davis - Aces to Aces" / Kevin Davie "On Tour with Lee Sugg, The Ventriloquist, 1799" / Henrique "Mutterings" (VM10).
Published by W.Foulsham, London, 1000
Seller: PEND BOOKS, Newton Stewart, United Kingdom
First Edition
Card Covers. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. First Edition. Orange card covers, small slit to top front hinge. Some tanning to pages.
Published by The Royal Society Of Arts, 1959
Seller: Shore Books, London, United Kingdom
Book
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 78 pages. Illustrated. (SL#20).
Published by W.Foulsham & Co. Ltd, 1937
Seller: Cotswold Internet Books, Cheltenham, United Kingdom
First Edition
1st ed. Well used copy in tight binding; orange covers, rather worn on edges; pages heavily foxed, with smudges on half title page. Used - Good. Fair/Good paperback.
Published by London: W. Foulsham & CO. Ltd.
Seller: Quicker than the Eye, Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: Fair. Orange stiff wrappers, illustrated, 87 pages. Toning to pages, rubber stamp to free end paper, fair condition.
Published by W Foulsham & Co Ltd, 1953
Seller: Shore Books, London, United Kingdom
Book
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 87 pages. Illustrated. (VM3).
Seller: Herbst-Auktionen, Detmold, Germany
Manuscript / Paper Collectible Signed
FOTO, EIGENHÄNDIG SIGNIERT - rückseitig signiert mit eigenhändiger Empfehlung.
Published by Central Printing Co (Chas Sowden) Ltd, 1950
Seller: Shore Books, London, United Kingdom
Book First Edition
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 32 pages. (VM2).
Published by George Armstrong, London, 1951
Seller: BOOKMARK, Auckland, New Zealand
First Edition
Soft Copy. Condition: VG. Dust Jacket Condition: None. First Edition. Moderate soiling and rubbing. Spine: thin wear to head & foot. Edges: age soiling. Half-title page head with small white label covering text; staple binding are rusty. Clean contents. Binding is VG. 51p.
Condition: Fine. The book is in fine condition.
Published by Yilmaz Ofset Basimevi., ca. 1970, [Istanbul], 1970
Art / Print / Poster
Leather. Condition: Very Good. Original b/w printed poster. Size: (100 x 70 cm). In Turkish. It shows Mahir in front of devil. Beynelmilel illizyonist ve vantrolog Mahir. [International illusionist and ventriloquist Mahir]. Scarce.
Published by No place, [ca. 1912]., 1912
Seller: Antiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH, Vienna, A, Austria
Manuscript / Paper Collectible Signed
8vo (140 x 70 mm). Halftone print. Portrait postcard, signed in ink "Chung Ling Soo", with Chinese characters adjacent, depicting the magician head and shoulders, his head shaved and wearing a queue, in an embroidered jacket. This image was also used as the frontispiece for the programme for the Alhambra Theatre, Paris, in September 1912. - W. E. Robinson was an American illusionist famous for creating the persona of a Chinese magician, Chung Ling Soo, an act he performed both on and off the stage. Dressed in traditional Chinese attire, he shaved his head, wore his hair in a queue and created an elaborate "back story" for himself. He never spoke onstage unless in broken English and communicated to journalists via an interpreter. He became highly popular and one of the highest-paid vaudeville performers, helped no doubt by the publicity resulting from his feud with a real Chinese magician, Ching Ling Foo, who claimed he had stolen his act. Soo was most famous for his "Condemned to Death by the Boxers" trick and was fatally injured by a bullet during a performance of the act at Wood Green Empire in 1918. After his death, the public was shocked to learn that he was not Chinese.
Published by Paris, 21. XI. 1928., 1928
Seller: Antiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH, Vienna, A, Austria
Manuscript / Paper Collectible
8vo. 4 pp. on bifolium. Charming and insightful letter to Auguste Drioux in Lyon, publisher of the magic magazine Passez Muscade, thanking him for the most recent issues and promising an article on Robert Houdin's illusion "Le Décapité récalcitrant" from 1890. Méliès mentions that he is currently very busy, as he was taking care of his gravely ill daughter Georgette and restoring some of Robert Houdin's automatons that he had donated to the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris: "Je suis obligé de nettoyer tout cela, et de remettre les têtes, mains, costumes, peintures et dorures en bon état. Il y a pas mal de travail, car tout ce matériel est resté 5 ans dans un endroit assez humide, et il en a souffert. Mais une fois retapé il n'y paraîtra plus, et il pourra affronter l'éternité dans les vitrines du Musée. à moins qu'il ne soit, un jour, détruit par un incendie". - The ominous remark that a fire could destroy the museum seems to be an allusion to Méliès' destruction of his own negatives, film sets, and costumes after he lost his legal battle with Pathé over his Montreuil studio in 1923. Méliès praises the performance of Drioux's fellow magicians from Lyon at a banquet by the Chambre syndicale du Cinema that was probably held in his honour. In a postscript he reports that the politician Édouard Herriot, who had also been present at the banquet, apologized to him for not being able to award Méliès with "the famous red ribbon" anymore, having lost his post as Minister of Culture days earlier. However, Herriot promised to put in a good word for Méliès with his successor, also alluding to the possibility that he might get a job in the insurance of the movie industry "Mutuelle du Cinéma," possibly as the director of its retirement home. This prospect gave Méliès hope to be able to finally escape his "dreadful Montparnasse prison": "Il avait promis, pour moi, le fameux ruban rouge, à la demande de Brézillon. Mais c'est bien ma veine, il venait de perdre sa place de ministre 5 jours auparavant. Il a été charmant avec moi, s'est excusé d'avoir été contraint de se 'débarquer' lui-même, ce sont ses propres expressions, mais m'a promis son appui [.] auprès du nouveau Ministre de l'Instruction publique et des beaux arts. [.] En tous cas, j'ai su qu'il est question de me donner une situation intéressante dans l'état major de la Mutuelle du Cinéma; peut-êtrela direction de la maison de retraite. Inutel de dire que cela ferait fort bien mon affaire, en me libérant de mon affreuse prison de Montparnasse". - Following his bankruptcy in 1925, Méliès and his second wife Jehanne d'Alcy barely made a living with a small candy and toy stand in Gare Montparnasse. Around this time Méliès, who had been slipping into oblivion since 1913, was slowly rediscovered and recognized as a film pioneer by journalists and enthusiasts such as Auguste Drioux. Despite the renewed interest and official recognition like the award of the Legion of Honour, Méliès' financial situation improved little. While the post as director never materialised, Méliès, his wife, and his granddaughter received a place in the retirement home in Orly in 1932.