We Dream Of Magic
By Ken Trombly - Thursday, September 16, 2021
This wonderful poster is for Augustus Hartz, who with his brother Joseph, came to the United States from Liverpool, England in 1866. In the 1880s they opened what might have been the first magic shop in the US, naming it the Hartz Magic Repository. In addition to both being working performers, the two brothers were also inventors of magic effects, credited with such varied offerings as the thumbtip, mirror glass and a floating head illusion. The acquisition of this half sheet (approximately 20 x 30 inches) Strobridge Litho poster, is one of those lucky, unexpected finds; at a Boston vintage paper show after an early departure from the New England Magic Collectors’ Yankee Gathering just west of Boston to visit with an old high school chum. In the last booth of the show there sat this rare lithograph staring me in the face. Pure magic!
© 2021, Kenneth M. Trombly, All Rights Reserved
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