John Gingles, the JG of JG Collectibles, currently has this beautiful high-end piece available for sale over on SeeAuctions.com. John brought his photo to my attention by submitting it through my Share Your Collection form. On that form John answered the original question, "How do you store your collection?"
Recently acquired this magnificent original Houdini cabinet card photograph, autographed by him. Am preserving it by keeping it out of the light and out of harm's way in our safety deposit box, while displaying a museum-quality reproduction I had made.
Over 80 years after his death, Harry Houdini remains the most famous magician who ever lived. A master of publicity as well as escape, Houdini engraved his name upon the pop culture of the day through a steady batch of public displays and was certainly one of the most famous men of his time.
Born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, Hungary, on March 24, 1874, the man who was to become Houdini immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1878, at age four. Weiss was doing amateur performances at an early age, and eventually chose Magic as his profession. He took the name "Harry Houdini" because of his admiration for the famous 19th century French conjurer, Jean Robert-Houdin -- a Meld side note, there's an excellent, and quite long, article about Houdin in the November 1877 issue of Harper's Monthly magazine that can read online through Cornell's Making of America collection.
Over his career Harry Houdini undertook tens of thousands of performances world-wide and also found the time to publish numerous articles, plus devoted a good bit of spare time to debunking fake Spiritualists.
Houdini died young, just 52, when he passed on from complications of a ruptured appendix in 1926--John's listing points out that Houdini's final performance came on the night his appendix burst.
John's Houdini photo is a vintage 6" X 8" Cabinet Card produced in the photographer's studio circa 1910 or 1911, which was then personally hand-signed by Houdini and more recently authenticated by JSA (James Spence Authentication). As noted in the listing "A number of photos of Houdini also exist bearing signatures stamped by an assistant, or by his wife Bess, who even continued to sign or stamp and send out photos of him after his death. Also, there are now numerous, cheap, modern reproductions or photocopies of various Houdini photographs on the market."
This is certainly not uncommon in the autograph field, how many Lou Gehrig photos do we see signed by his wife, or in a much more common example how many stamped photos do we see advertised by inexperienced dealers as authentically signed. Autograph collecting is a highly specialized field, always make sure you're confident in your purchases. Trust me, a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) from a well-regarded service such as JSA will make you rest much easier than a bargain signature purchased on trust from someone unknown in the field.
The listing also tells us that this particular photo was one of Houdini's personal favorites, as indicated by it's extensive post-1910 use on Houdini's handbills, ticket stubs, and other promotional materials.
Besides viewing it online, you can see John's signed Houdini photo in the flesh at JG Collectibles located in the Mt. Vernon Antique Center, 8101 Richmond Hwy, Alexandria, VA.
While I'm not particularly looking to turnover the Share Your Collection portion of the site to a series of sales listings, I am looking to post items about outstanding collectibles focusing on pop culture icons of days gone by. Thus I couldn't pass up the opportunity to show off this wonderful Harry Houdini piece. Magic items are highly collected, and the way my mind works, bringing everything back to areas I'm more familiar with, Houdini is certainly the Babe Ruth of this world--even people who don't know or don't care about magic know Harry Houdini.
