In case anyone is interested…
Sotheby’s is auctioning the Ricky Jay Collection this Weds 10am EDT (3pm BST).
“Books, pamphlets, posters, handbills, broadsides, prints, ephemera, objects, and apparatus documenting the histories of magic, circuses, jugglers and acrobats, automatons, remarkable characters, learned animals, limb-deficient artists, con men, and scores of other related, if arcane, topics.”
You can probably pick up an engraving of “The Fasting Fraud” from 1812 for as little as 600 USD, but a colour poster of Houdini (Upside Down in the Water Torture Cell) from 1913-1915 is likely to set you back by as much as 60,000 USD.
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/the-ricky-jay-collection
Mark Scivier.
Mark Scivier