This item is complete with instructions from the Magical Department of A.W. Gamage Ltd, Holborn, London. The illustrated Davenports advertisement reads: ‘A heavy brass ball is shown and given to spectator to hold. In a few seconds he is seen passing ball from hand to hand, causing roars of laughter. At last ball gets so hot he is obliged to drop it on the floor!!!’ We are told that the ball is quite simple to use and there is no chance of failure. If performed today, you would almost certainly be in trouble with health and safety legislation, assuming you were able to even buy the required chemicals. Not recommended for the modern performer! Note the fact that the advertisement misleadingly shows a large ball sitting on the magician’s hand. In reality it is 55mm in diameter.
The ball runs freely on the cord when the cord is held vertically. However, the magician can make the ball stop at any point along the cord called out by the audience. The label on the box lid includes the letters L. and D. for Lewis Davenport. A label on the bottom of the box says ‘A.W. Gamage Ltd, Holborn, London’, so this trick would have been supplied to Gamages by Davenports. Gamages was a major customer for Davenports wholesale business.
Davenports supplied Gamages department store with magic sets under the name Gamagic. This business probably started in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Note the name Demon on the top of the instructions on the inside of the lid.
This magic set was another one supplied by Davenports to Gamages. The inside lid uses the Maskelyne’s name, so the date of the box is certainly later than 1935. Judging from its construction it is probably post-war. The box was found in a Davenport storeroom , but with no contents.
The cover shows David Devant in the costume worn by him at the Royal Command Performance at The Palace Theatre, 1 July 1912. The catalogue covers magic and its allied arts, juggling, puzzles, novelties and jokes. This catalogue also contains an order form which is a sheet of paper, folded into 4 pages, all of which are printed.
These boxes were produced by Davenports. The label on the lid uses the Maskelyne’s Mysteries name, owned by Davenports following their purchase of the Maskelyne business assets in 1935. The box style which has gold rimmed partitions suggests that it was an early box, probably pre-war.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
![The Gamage [Box] of Harmless Practical Jokes – label only](https://www.davenportcollection.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/N-1237-T88-scaled.jpg)