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One of the first decks of cards ever used by Harry Houdini will sell at Goldin Auctions later this month, with bidding already surpassing $5,000.
The nearly complete deck is said to have been used by Houdini around 1890, which would place it among the earliest eras of the magician’s performing career.
Born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, Hungary, in 1874, Houdini would move with his family to Wisconsin as a young child, eventually relocating with his father, a rabbi, to New York in 1887.
The deck of card’s attribution to 1890 is significant, as that was the same year he began using the stage name Harry Houdini, only starting his formal magic career a year later.
Though later Houdini would become famous for his stunts, including his ability to escape various restraints and other seemingly impossible physical feats, he was first known as the “King of Cards.”
The deck of cards passed from Houdini’s possession to his wife, Bess, after his death in 1926, according to letters of provenance accompanying the lot.
The cards were later passed on to a magician named Audley S. Dunham, who later gifted them to J. Elder Blackledge, a well-known magician who once performed at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
After Blackledge’s death in 1961, the deck was given to another magician named William B.F. Hall. Finally, after Hall’s death in 1968, it arrived in the ownership of a friend and fellow magician, Lawrence L. Michaelis, who has consigned the cards. Michaelis, a retired chief of cardiothoracic surgery, writes in the letter of provenance that he has been doing magic for more than 75 years.
An additional card accompanying the deck features a signed note from Blackledge: “This deck was one of the first used by Houdini (about 1890). Mrs. Houdini gave it to Audley S. Dunham who gave it to me Dec. 14, 1943."
Though it is quite rare to see a deck of cards attributed to Houdini, other items relating to his life and career have sold for large sums over the years and remain coveted collectibles.
An automatic flowering rosebush, created for Houdini’s final American tour in 1926, sold for a record $324,000 in 2022. A straitjacket used by Houdini around 1915 sold for more than $30,000 in 2011.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.