HOUDINI, Harry (Erik Weisz, 1874 - 1926). Cabinet Card Portrait of Houdini and T. Nelson Downs. New York: Kern Bros., ca. 1901. Three-quarter length sepia tone portrait of the famed escape artist and manipulative magician. Houdini sits next to Downs. Embossed and printed photographer’s mount, 6 5/8 x 4 ¼”. Rubber stamp of Mahatma magazine to verso, and bearing the inscription and signature of the magazine's editor, Walter Peterkin.

Downs and Houdini both struggled as performers in small-time vaudeville, and both rose the ranks of fame together in London. The two men remained lifelong friends. Walter Peterkin was the first editor of Mahatma, the first American periodical devoted to the interests of magicians. The magazine was printed in the back room of Martinka's New York magic shop before relocating to Brooklyn.  

Corner bumped.