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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The September 2024 issue included:
– Update on the Davenport Collection on Instagram.
– Demon Travelling Clocks – the sound of magic.
– Film of Peter Warlock performing his Penetration Frame.
– Bewildering the Maharajah in 1925.
– Owen Clark’s 4 page OWEN brochure.
– Claude Chandler presents Devant’s Revue of Magic at St. George’s Hall in 1922.
– Film of Cecil Lyle’s Chocolate Box Illusion, performed in 1985.
– 1906 Magic Circle membership medal (badge) for Martin Mayhew.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The June 2024 issue included:
– Lifetime Achievement Award.
– Film of Edward Victor performing his Diminishing Cards.
– Film of the 1936 German Magic Circle Convention, Munich.
– Harry Leat’s bizarre GRUB trick.
– Harry Leat’s ‘Magic in a Name’ Cards – Louis Nikola.
– Leat’s Supernatural Silk trick.
– Claude Chandler’s unfinish autobiography.
– Leat’s Matchbox to Candle transformation.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator. The March 2024 issue included:
– A film clip of Gus Davenport performing The Three Shell Game in 1936.
– Zauber Burgen (Magic Castles).
– Devant, Maskelyne and the Crispin Family.
– Magic sets.
– Cecil Lyle’s Chocolate Box Illusion – now on film.
– Demon Series printed silks.
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In the Davenport Collection there are photographs of members of the Crispin family. These have been brought together in a brief article that explains how the family contributed to the Devant and Maskelyne shows. Perhaps the most widely known member of the family is Adela Crispin, who is credited as the levitated lady in a photograph in My Magic Life of Devant performing the Sylph Illusion. But was she? It turns out not everyone agrees. This too is discussed in the PDF.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator. The December 2023 issue included:
– A pen with a surprise.
– Gone but not forgotten: tricks with cigarettes and pre-decimal coins.
– Besoni: a versatile Victorian entertainer.
– Ever more impossible joints.
– J.N. Maskelyne reminisces.
– And have you seen . . . this electric window figure, now also on video.
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Click on Details if you would like to download a PDF of this e-news.
E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator. The September 2023 issue included:
– Newsreel of the 1938 British Ring Convention.
– Radio dice box.
– The Great Modern Psuedourgos Dr Lynn.
– Is it just a puzzle or an entertaining trick?
– The Oswald Williams Noah’s Ark Illusion – now also on film.
– And have you seen . . . Eddie Dawes in his own words.
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Click on Details if you would like to download a PDF of this e-news.
E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator. The June 2023 issue included:
– Prof. Edwin A. Dawes by his sons Michael and Adrian Dawes.
– The metal snapper – was it an improvement?
– Pat Page and the Ju-Ju Stick.
– De Biere’s ALL IN ONE pamphlet, 1919.
– The Ju-Ju Stick by Frank Monaghan.
– Three different puzzles – one solution.
– Going back 150 years to the Egyptian Hall on Piccadilly.
– How to make a curator happy.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The March 2023 issue included:
– De Biere, The Sculptor’s Vision postcard.
– George Cooke of Maskelyne and Cooke.
– The Pea House Plot.
– A new theatre of magic for London?
– The Ju-Ju Stick by Frank Monaghan.
– Demon Wonder Wands.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The December 2022 issue included:
– Update on the Davenport Film Collection, including the 1936 Munich convention and Cardini.
– Update on the Davenport Collection Instagram site.
– The Demon Cannon Detector.
– The “Red Hot” Ball.
– The Season’s Greetings from David Devant: a card collection.
– David Devant and the early days of cinema.
– Lewis Davenport’s early performing days.
– The Demon Rod and Beads
Luckily, the Davenport family is not prone to throwing things away. This allows John Davenport to share something of their attendance at the 19-21 September 1936 Munich Convention. Lewis, Wynne and Gus Davenport travelled to Munich for their first German Magic Circle Convention (Magischer Zirkel Deutschland). It was a good opportunity to meet many continental magic dealers and magicians. John Davenport’s article reproduces letters, photographs and other ephemera from the occasion. In addition to downloading a PDF of the article, you might also wish to view the film taken by the family, which may be found here.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The September 2022 issue included:
– three seldom seen tricks.
– a little known Davenport shop.
– two jokes for your drinking and card playing friends.
– Jimmy’s Magic Pencil.
– magicians and their families
– noise-making novelties.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The June 2022 issue included:
– more on David Devant’s early career.
– Uri Geller and mind power.
– Sakkaku Scale by Tenyo – a magical optical illusion.
– create wooden Japanese furniture by taking a block of wood to pieces. It’s a puzzle putting it together again.
– the link between World War II gas masks and Davenports conjurers’ wax.
– the Old and the New Magic: a look at Davenports 1956 catalogue.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The March 2022 issue included:
– the launch of the Films Category and the Davenport Film Collection YouTube Channel.
– Ali Bongo version of the Gozinta Box with a double load.
– “Humpty Dumpty” children’s paper tearing trick.
– Devant’s early performing career.
– the staying power of traditional toys and novelties.
– “Shanroy” Scenery from The Servais Le Roy Company.
– an 1889 letter from J.N. Maskelyne and an unresolved issue
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The December 2021 issue included:
– a very effective penetration trick from 1933.
– a box from the German magic dealer Carl Willmann, full of apparatus for a shadowgraphy performance.
– rare items from the Maskelyne and Cooke Provincial Company from the 1900 period.
– a 1904 illuminated address to Mr. and Mrs. Devant, concerning their daughter Vida.
– examples of novelties and jokes spanning 100 years.
– new plans for the website in 2022.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The September 2021 issue included:
– a 19th century dissecting drawer box.
– the Pipe of Wu Fang.
– the Watch Your Step “Unique Magic” children’s trick.
– a variety of jokes.
– Mickey Mouse and Lewis Davenport.
– optical illusions and optical surprises.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The June 2021 issue included:
– a card trick with a canary.
– a box for changing a lily into a rose.
– information on Will Goldston (1877-1948).
– John Salisse and the Maskelynes.
– a levitating light bulb.
– a box of Egyptian Hall ephemera.
– Peter Lane’s talk on magicians’ programmes.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The March 2021 issue included:
– Gems from The Magic Circle Collection: Mr Maskelyne’s famous play by Anne Goulden.
– Gus Davenport – the man and the magician by John Davenport.
– Roy Field on Magic at the Seaside.
– Honouring Oswald Williams.
– Paul Freeman on Adalbert Frikell.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The December 2020 issue included:
– What kept John Nevil Maskelyne busy in 1894?
– Steve Beam on bookplates.
– Space-efficient collections.
– Lewis Davenport’s travels in Europe.
– It’s December, so here’s an example of that perennial gift: the magic set.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The September 2020 issue included:
– Cecil Lyle’s Chocolate Box Illusion.
– The Egyptian Hall, 19th century lithographs.
– Novelties and toys – old and new.
– David Devant, Walter R. Booth and early cinema.
– A talk about John Ramsay by Dr E.A. Dawes.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The June 2020 issue included:
– Roberta Byron – The Youngest Magician in the World presented by Brian Lead.
– Okito glasses.
– Menetekel – The Writing Ball – introduced by William Berol.
– Printed paper coil showing the magician Carlton’s head.
– Cyraldo’s Tube, Silks and Liquids.
– The Chinese magician automaton created by Tony Middleton.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The March 2020 issue included:
– Magic sets.
– Jokes.
– Linga Singh by Nigel Dutt.
– The magic of Lewis Davenport and his first wife Julia.
– Early days of the Maskelyne and Devant partnership at St. George’s Hall.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The November 2019 issue included:
– Peter Waring.
– A Chung Ling Soo poster.
– Ephemera other than posters and programmes.
– What entertainments are on in London in 1886.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The July 2019 issue included:
– Letters from The Front by Michael Colley.
– Ephemera other than posters and programmes.
– Wynne Davenport’s stage dresses.
– Peter Warlock paintings.
– A Maskelyne designed cash register.
– Novelties.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The February 2019 issue included:
– Intermittently on the halls, a talk by Anne Goulden about Lewis Davenport.
– The first of 80 British Ring conventions, Cheltenham 1931, a talk by Roy Field.
– Noms de Theatre – stage names for magicians, a talk by Paul Freeman.
– a Gustav Fasola poster.
– Frederick Culpitt’s Doll’s House.
– Oswald Williams’ Noah’s Ark illusion.
– Production of a Ford car.
– The Friendship Clock – a gift from Punx to Lewis Davenport.
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E-newsletters like this one are sent out four times a year, highlighting recent additions to the website. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please contact the curator.
The September 2018 issue included:
– Chevalier Ernest Thorn – “King of Illusionists”, a talk by Paul Freeman.
– 19th century Egyptian Hall programmes.
– Chung Ling Soo’s dove pan.
– Magic apparatus.
Historians of Victorian entertainment will be familiar with the Egyptian Hall on Piccadilly in London. It served as an entertainment complex until it was demolished in 1905. Less well known is the fact that the Hall has been captured on wall tiles in the Hyde Park Corner pedestrian underpass.
Click below to download the PDF containing John Davenport’s photographs.
The Egyptian Hall on Piccadilly in London was probably the best-known example in England of a building in the pseudo ancient Egyptian style. Another was built around 1830 in Penzance in Cornwall. It was a mixture of styles, but the Egyptian influence was clear.
Click below to download the PDF with additional information and John Davenport’s photographs.
Many of the Maskelyne items in the Davenport Collection were made for public consumption: programmes, publicity material, printed books, and so on. One of our shelves is occupied by books which were always intended to be private. They are the surviving business records of the Maskelynes at St George’s Hall.
The purpose of this article is to record the scope of these business records and provide examples of their content.
Growing up in the Davenport family, Gus was surrounded by magic performances and the manufacture and sale of magic. Fortunately, he embraced it. This short article describes Gus the man and the personality and skills that led him to particular styles of performing.
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