The cover highlights Mr Bertram, the World-renowned Prestidigitateur. The ‘Charles Bertram’ hand written at the top of the front cover looks like Bertram’s signature. See N3237.
Programmes & Handbills
The majority are for variety shows which include a magician. Most are from the UK covering the 1870s to the present day.
To search for a specific date use the format 10 October 1924
The venue is the Egyptian Large Hall. The images for this programme are distorted because the programme had been cut and pasted onto a card. It was therefore not possible to scan them.
This programme is similar, but not identical to N3158.
The venue is the Egyptian Large Hall. The programme details differ in two ways from programme N3159. In N3159 the venue is given as Egyptian Hall which is printed in a different type face. The second difference is that in N3158, at the bottom of page 4, Russell Court is incorrectly spelled as Russel Court.
The venue is the Egyptian Large Hall. There is a Times article on the cover dated 26 November 1874. This means the programme cannot be earlier than late 1874. This programme is almost the same as item N3156.
The venue is the Egyptian Large Hall. There is a Times article on the cover dated 26 November 1874. This means the programme cannot be earlier than late 1874. At first sight this programme appears to be a duplicate of N3157. However the Times article on the cover is different and this programme includes mention of the Misses Gerbaldi at the bottom of page 3. N3157 does not include this.
The venue is the Egyptian Large Hall. The cover announces a change of programme to include Japanese and Chinese Marvels. The probable date for the programme is 1874, because the first of the press opinions on page 4 is from The Times of 12 August, which the newspaper archive confirms is 1874.
This programme promises “The Grand Secrets of the Ancient Egyptian Magicians and the Startling Wonders of the Modern Spiritualists fully explained.”
The handbill includes details of Dr Lynn’s “Bi-diurnal Representations”. This is his way of saying there are two performances each day. Students of Dr Lynn will know he loved long, fantastic words.
Unfortunately only pages 3 and 4 of this programme survived. At some point in the past the programme was torn down the middle and pages 1 and 2 were lost. Nevertheless, the details of Part II of Dr Lynn’s programme are visible and we are told that his book How it’s done (see N3149) is available from the attendant.
The programme is unusual in that page 2 is blank. It was not like Dr Lynn to leave a space blank when it could be filled with glowing reports of his performances.
The back page of the programme lists the items which Dr Lynn was expected to perform. On the centre pages is a long list of Artistes who were to appear on behalf of Dr Lynn. It is interesting that these include Mr J.N. Maskelyne, who first fell out with Dr Lynn in the 1870s.