[Gallery of Mystery, London]

Unknown|Unknown

1890s · Carbon print; lithograph · Photographs

This photographic advertisement from London’s Gallery of Mystery illuminates the intimate connection between trick photography and the golden age of stage magic at the turn of the twentieth century. It was made to promote a drawing-room magic show presented by Robert Ganthony, a British stage illusionist and later the author of Bunkum Entertainments: Being a Collection of Original Laughable Skits on Conjuring, Physiognomy, Juggling, Performing Fleas, Waxworms . . . Etc. (1922). At the poster’s center is a photograph purporting to illustrate the "gradual transformation of two living persons, Miss Florizel and Mr. Lowater, into one under bright gaslight in the haunted flat." Doubling—two figures merging into one, or a single figure appearing multiple times—was at the time an extremely popular motif in both theatrical magic and trick photography.

Artist

Unknown|Unknown

Date

1890s

Medium

Carbon print; lithograph

Department

Photographs

Credit line

The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2015