The Ricky Jay Collection

The Ricky Jay Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 531. Rubini [Philip Prentice Anderson] | Beheading a Lady! .

Rubini [Philip Prentice Anderson] | Beheading a Lady!

Auction Closed

October 28, 08:54 PM GMT

Estimate

800 - 1,200 USD

Lot Details

Description

Rubini [Philip Prentice Anderson]

Corn Exchange, York ... The World-Renowned Rubini! The Great and Famous Conjurer ... Beheading a Lady! Hartlepool: J. Proctor, [1869]


Lithograph broadside playbill (595 x 267) printed in two colors; not examined out of frame, old folds, some creasing and wear. Matted, framed and glazed with Plexiglas. [together with] Autograph letter signed "P. Rubini," one page, to Procter, "Corn Exchange, York" May 7th 1868. Asking for 1,000 window bills, outlining the modifications required for his engagement in York, and promising money.  


The conjurer Rubini's fame, what little of it seems justified, rests largely on engagements at London's Egyptian Hall and later St. James' Small Hall in 1867. The signature effect of his program, featured on the present playbill, is "Beheading a Lady," by most accounts a rather crude version of the decapitation illusion. The present lot is also accompanied by a letter to the printer, which provides some insight into the relationship between printer and performer (EE). 


REFERENCE:

Exemplars, p. 295; EE, pp. 148-149 

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