HOUDINI MAGIC AT SWANN'S

Harry Houdini’s lock-picking ability first surfaced as a young child when his mother’s jam tarts mysteriously disappeared out of a locked cupboard. Houdini, a budding magician even then, found a way to open the cupboard, steal a few tarts and then leave it exactly the way he found it. 

This went on until Houdini’s baffled mother added a padlock to the cupboard in an effort to safeguard her pastry. It didn’t work. 

The tarts continued to disappear until Houdini was caught red-handed. Years later he delighted in disappearing cakes out of his wife’s cupboard in the same way. 

Houdini learned as a six-year-old how to make a dried pea appear in any one of three cups. Suspense and challenge always seemed to surround him. Those traits were the same ones that eventually made him one of the greatest magicians of all time. 

Houdini’s fascination with death manifested into some truly death-defying tricks and illusions. Here was a man who seemingly came face to face with his own demise every night on stage. In front of thousands of people, he danced on the edge. 

As a performer, Houdini coaxed audiences inside the drama. He was magic. 

Always a showman, Houdini once said that only when people were sure he was licked would he appear from beneath his watery grave or locked coffin. The magician loved to visit police stations all over the country challenging them to come up with something he could not escape from. 

George Bernard Shaw ranked Houdini right up there with Jesus Christ and Sherlock Holmes as one of the three most famous figures in history. 

On Oct. 27 Swann Galleries, New York, featured the American and English magic collection of Christian Fechner on the block. Fechner, a French film producer, has spent most of his life amassing one of the largest magic collections in the world. It’s considered one of the most important in the world in terms of scope and high quality. 

The auction included plenty of 19th and 20th century magic posters, autographs, books, photos, magic catalogs, Houdini items, and other ephemera. Fechner, a magician himself, has created new illusions for some of the best-known contemporary magic performers. He has also authored numerous books on magic including two about Houdini.