‘The Illustrated London News’ of 4 May 1907, page 673, carried this rather impressive photo montage of the legal wrangle. The case garnered much press coverage at the time. Further details are often given in books on British magic history which cover this period.
St. James’s Hall, situated between Regent Street and Piccadilly, was the first central London venue for Maskelyne and Cooke, prior to their move to the Egyptian Hall. People used to reading 19th century newspaper prose will know that it can be, shall we say, over the top. This particular article on pages 145, 146 and 160 would take some beating! Caution must be exercised in believing that the drawings are an accurate representation of the hall.
The illustration is from The Penny Illustrated Paper, 3 April 1875, page 213. Also shown is the informative article which was printed on pages 213 and 214.
From the magazine ‘Punch’, 2 February 1878. This political cartoon by Tenniel features Benjamin Disraeli.
The item on page 32 is headlined ‘King of Magic’s Command Show’. It describes a visit to the Putney Home for Incurables by members of The Magic Circle, at the invitation of David Devant. The article reported Devant’s view that ‘Conjuring has certainly not made the advance during the last twenty years that it should have done.’
Members of J.N. Maskelyne’s company presented the original of this testimonial, dated 26 May 1898, to JN. This particular copy is rather special because JN gave it to George Cooke for Christmas 1898. His inscription on the reverse is ‘To G.A. Cooke| Accept this copy with my [incomplete word, possibly ‘heartfelt’] reciprocation of the good wishes in the original. | J.N. Maskelyne | Christmas 1898.’
Members of J.N. Maskelyne’s company presented the original of this testimonial, dated 26 May 1898, to JN. In the collection there is another copy of this testimonial inscribed by J.N. Maskelyne to G.A. Cooke. See Ref. no. N1919.
The date is 31 May 1925. George W. Heller was the first Vice-President of Society of American Magicians.
The date is circa 1873-1874.
This appears to be the original artwork from which illustrations were made. The business moved into 39/41 New Oxford Street at the end of 1938.
