Potter & Potter Auctions
Live Auction

Select Secrets: Rare & Important Magicana

Sat, Feb 27, 2021 12:00PM EST
Lot 73

Kellar, Harry (Heinrich Keller). Kellar the Great Magician.

Estimate: $6,000 - $12,000

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$30 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $200
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000
Kellar, Harry (Heinrich Keller). Kellar the Great Magician. Cincinnati ? New York: Strobridge Litho. Co., 1894. Handsome half-length portrait of the famous American magician with two imps perched on his shoulders, text below the white tie and black coat he wears. Handsomely framed to 48 x 37 ??. Minor expert restoration to tear in margin; A-. Linen backed. A rare variant printing of this classic magic poster. While the origin of the ?imps on the shoulders? motif is not entirely clear ? was the concept developed by Kellar, by the artists he worked with at Strobridge, or by some combination of the two? ? there is no question that the final product was the first poster to use what has become a genre-setting trend popular even in modern times. Many examples of the classic ?imps portrait? in the smaller half-sheet size have survived the years, and remain popular with collectors. Fewer examples of the one-sheet version of the image exist, and even fewer still ? perhaps three or four - exist of the variant offered here, which uses a different combination of colors and lettering to create a perhaps subtler effect than the version most magicians are now familiar with.