Please note that the results listed on this page are inclusive of any Sotheby's Premiums and exclusive of any applicable taxes and costs, unless otherwise noted.
Please note that the results listed on this page are inclusive of any Sotheby's Premiums and exclusive of any applicable taxes and costs, unless otherwise noted.
The Ricky Jay Collection
22 September - 27 October 2021 • New York
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Your local time • 14:00 PM GMT
1 (Acrobatics) | A group of six items
2 (Acrobatics) | A charming tabletop game featuring a moving trapeze artist
3 Ady, Thomas | A far more serious approach to debunking witchcraft than the witch skit in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
4 Ady, Thomas | Debunking witchcraft redux
5 (Ætherscope) | "The Greatest Success Ever Known in This Town"
6 Agoust, Henri | The masters of "Restaurant Juggling"
7 Agrippa von Nettesheim, Henricus Cornelius | A skeptical view of the arts and sciences
8 Alberti, Giuseppe Francesco Antonio | Fun with numbers and dexterous card tricks
9 Allarty, Blanche | Midnight at the oasis
10 Alt, Al | The inspiration for Ricky Jay Plays Poker
11 Anderson, George | A striking oversized poster advertising "The Living Skeleton"
12 Anderson, John Henry (The Great Wizard of the North) | "… the most Wonderful Feat ever attempted by living Man … the Gun Delusion!"
13 Anderson, John Henry (The Great Wizard of the North) | An ornate playbill for "The Great Wizard of the North"
14 Anderson, John Henry (The Great Wizard of the North) | A striking portrait
15 Andress, Charles | According to Kellar, "The Last of the Old Masters in Magic"
16 (Animals, Exotic) | Exhibition of exotic animals, mostly reptilian, and free lessons with the purchase of a magical instrument
17 (Animals, Performing) | Performing quadrupeds, bipeds, and winged creatures
18 (Animals, Performing) | Performing horses, deer, elephant, and dogs
19 (Animals, Performing) | Performing horses, deer, elephant, and dogs
20 (Aquatic, Exotic Exhibitions) | A group of seven handbills and broadsides
21 (Aquatic Fair) | Water works
22 Aretino, Pietro | Translates literally as Dialogue by Pietro Aretino in which the game is spoke of with pleasant morality
23 Astley, Philip | "new Exercises, On several Horses which no other Horseman in the World can perform"
24 [Astley, John Conway Philip] | A slip song with lyrics composed by Philip Astley
25 Astley, Philip | The final performance of Astley's "Wonderful Little Horse"
26 (Automata) | Marvelous marchines
27 (Automata) | Automata, spectres, and beheadings
28 (Automata) | Early American playbill for an automata musicians
29 (Automata) | A group of broadsides for "extraordinary curiosities"
30 (Automata) | Six works on "Superb and Magnificent Pieces of Mechanism"
31 (Automata) | "Magnificent Exhibitions"
32 (Automata) | "Mechanical Figures, As Large as Life, Moving and Working by Machinery"
33 (Automaton Card Tricks) | Mr. Lane—fairground showman, and "First Conjurer to the King"
34 (Automata, Chess) | " ... it can be but an illusion ... But in what consists the illusion? There is the Gordian knot"
35 (Automaton Chess-Player) | The first great "cabinet trick"
36 (Automaton Chess-Player) | Maelzel's mysterious mechanism
37 (Automaton Chess Player) | It even speaks French
38 (Automata) | Including a "Great War" and a "Representation of Nature, in one of her most Tremendous Aspects"
39 (Automata, Musical) | Flute-playing automata
40 Hottentot Venus (Sarah "Saartjie" Baartmann) | A "Wonderful Living Production of Nature"
41 [Babcock, John] | A cockney-inspired lexicon
42 [Bacon, Roger and Thomas Bungay] | The exploits of "Doctor Mirabilis"
43 Signor Bagonghi (Giuseppe Bignoli) | The Bignoli that made Bagonghi famous
44 Bailey, Robert | A notorious gambler, reformed
45 Mr. Baldwin | The unrivalled American magician
46 Baldwin, Samri S., & Miss Baldwin (Samuel Spencer Baldwin & Kitty Baldwin) | Where are my pants?
47 "Clown" Barker & Miss Rozsika | Animal comedians
48 Barnum, P. T. | "Three Dozen Reasons Among Thirty-Six Thousand" to visit Barnum's fair