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 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.
In 1922, by which time Devant was too ill to perform, he chose Claude Chandler to present his Revue of Magic at St. George’s Hall in London. At the time, Chandler was in his mid-twenties. Over a hundred years later, detailed records of the project still exist. Our article is based on this Devant-Chandler archive and we have taken the opportunity to reproduce many of the original documents. They are a time capsule from the 1920s.
Devant and Chandler hoped that the revue would also be booked for variety theatres, but it was not to be. We also discuss the reasons for this lack of success in the PDF.
Recent publications about Claude Chandler on the Davenport Collection website prompted Chris Woodward to recall his memories of Claude. Chris has very kindly put these in an article, complete with rare photographs of Claude, which I am pleased to publish on this website.
The design of this brochure is unusual in that it folds open to reveal 8 pages. The brochure tells us that this is ‘The Most Perfect Entertainment for Children ever devised’. The brochure has no date, but it mentions Chandler performing Devant’s Revue at St. George’s Hall. The date for this was in 1922, so the brochure cannot be earlier than 1922. All 8 pages may be viewed in the PDF.
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 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.
To see all the other e-news, click on Website e-news.
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.
Bate wrote this letter to Devant on old notepaper from the 1890s when he was known as Harry Bate, MYSTIFICATEUR. It confirms that Bate supplied conjuring apparatus to the wholesale and retail trade as well as providing entertainments and lessons in sleight of hand.
Henry Bate, Devant’s illusion builder, is writing to Devant in Aberdeen about a box trick. Devant had to return it to Bate because of a problem, which Bate says he has now resolved. A transcript of the first page is: Dear Mr Devant, Box duly arrived, you were quite right, the awful jerking on Rail had simply misplaced a part of the mechanism, nothing was either broken or out of order. I have placed with other papers, in Box, a full explanation of what occurred and the means taken to prevent it in future. I hope you will understand exactly what I mean. I feel certain everything is quite safe now. I want you to examine . . .
Henry Bate, David Devant’s illusion builder, charged him for work on the Barrel Illusion which Bate had to ship to Glasgow. At the time Devant was performing in Glasgow with the Maskelyne and Cooke Mysteries Provincial Company. Note the wide range of business activities listed by Bate in the top left corner of his letterhead.
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 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
The programme is for David Devant’s Entertainment ‘direct from Maskelyne and Cooke’s Egyptian Hall, London’. The bill consists of Animated Photographs and Mr. Maurice Victor. It’s interesting to note that on the week of this performance, starting Monday 29 August 1898, Devant had another group performing in Ramsgate. The programme for the Ramsgate performances is N1928. We know that Devant had four cine projectors to make use of, including the one permanently at the Egyptian Hall. The details may be found in item N2979, although no doubt the names of the people involved would have changed over time. See Devant and early cinema for similar items.
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