Potter & Potter

Chicago sale offers more than 300 works related to the British author amassed by US collectors

Richard Potter (1783-1835) is considered the first successful stage magician born in the US and African-American celebrity.

Top lot in the Potter & Potter (25% buyer’s premium) comics sale featured the debut of Captain America – introduced on the cover punching Hitler.

Few people can profess to know more about the 1910-12 Japanese Antarctic Expedition than the Arizona book dealer Chet Ross.

The sale of Vintage & Modern Magic at Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) in Chicago on August 26 included this original theatre contract signed by Erik Weisz, the man better known as Harry Houdini (1874-1926).

A trove of material related to the Japanese Antarctic Expedition (JAE) of 1910-12 comes to market at Potter & Potter in Chicago on October 12.

As co-publishers and editors of Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine established in 1991, Robin and Kathryn Smiley’s bookshelves were brimming with choice first editions from across the broad span of British and American literature.

‘Sherlockian scholar’ is the term Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) uses to describe Robert Hess.

Potter & Potter’s second books auction of the year includes Charles Dickens’ (1812-70) Great Expectations estimated at $8000-12,000.

'A Magician Among the Spirits' by Harry Houdini conjured up one of the highest prices in the Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) Houdini-related sale in Chicago on April 8 when it sold for $15,000 (£12,095).

A 1908, presentation first of one of WW Jacobs’ maritime tales, 'Salthaven', was the top lot in a sale held by Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium).

Potter & Potter in Chicago will sell more items from the collection of magician Ricky Jay on February 25.

Included in Potter & Potter’s latest sale of Books and Manuscripts is a rare first edition limited issue of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest.

Pictured here is one of two very successful lots relating to the career of Houdini that were sold in a Chicago auction.

In what was the auction house’s most successful sale ever in financial terms, and one that boasted a 97% selling rate, a March 4 sale at Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) was led at $65,000 (£49,240) by a 'Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity from the Time of his Being Taken by the British, near Montreal… in 1775, to the Time of his Exchange…in May 1778'.

On October 30 in Chicago Potter & Potter is holding the first part of the Ken Klosterman collection of magic-related artefacts.

A selection of Items relating to the famous escapologist Harry Houdini feature prominently among the potential highlights in the latest Potter & Potter Magic Auction to be live streamed from its gallery in Chicago on May 2.

A selection of books relating to conjuring dating back to the 17th century is one of the features of the latest Potter & Potter Magic sale to be held on December 14 in Chicago.

This c.1900 French automaton is included in the next sale held by Chicago saleroom Potter & Potter specialist auction house of magic props and memorabilia.