Friday, August 26, 2016

Houdini by Vernon

Potter & Potter's auction of "Old & New Conjuring" is set to go live tomorrow at 10AM CST. As always, there are several Houdini lots, including this scissor-cut silhouette portrait of Houdini by Dai Vernon from 1920 (Lot 393). This was probably done from life and is an excellent likeness. Estimate is $4,000- $6,000.


Vernon prided himself as being "the man who fooled Houdini" with a card trick. He later taught magicians such as Doug Henning, and provided silhouettes for the title page of Henning's Houdini His Legend and His Magic. Today he's venerated one of the all time great sleight of hand masters. Looks like he was pretty handy with the scissors as well!

Click here to view and bid on all the lots at Bidsquare.

UPDATE: Sold for a whopping $10,455!

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3 comments:

  1. John CoxAugust 27, 2016 at 1:29 PM

    Wow. This sold for $10,455! (before commission). And I was thinking their estimate was on the high side.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Leo HeviaAugust 27, 2016 at 1:34 PM

    Vernon's silhouettes usually sell for around $200 to $500 on auction sites, depending on who he cut. The subject matter made a whopping difference this time around. HH is still red hot these days.

    We still can't be sure if Vernon cut this while HH was posing. He could have done it off a profile photograph.

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  3. John CoxAugust 27, 2016 at 1:41 PM

    Vernon's silhouette of Hereward Carrington, signed by Carrington, took $399.75 (estimate was $600-900).

    ReplyDelete