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Iconic Field's Christmas Window Displays Head to Auction

Potter & Potter Brings Historic Marshall Field's Christmas Window Automatons to Auction

These moving display figures are being offered on behalf of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

We're excited to offer 30 moving Christmas window display figures from retailer Marshall Field's as part of our 752-lot Coin Op and Advertising sale, taking place September 12, 2024. The event will be held live in our Chicago gallery, located at 5001 W. Belmont Avenue in Chicago, and will be live streamed on our website. Items will be available for viewing by appointment, or during the week of the auction, from Sept. 9 - 11.

This automaton collection, currently held by Chicago's Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (MSI), was part of the legacy Chicagoland department store’s famed tradition of animated Christmas window displays. These attracted thousands of shoppers to the store’s flagship location on State Street every holiday season - a tradition that debuted in 1897. By the mid-1940s, these displays filled all 13 windows on the store’s State Street facade and told a story as visitors moved from window to window. "Visiting the store and viewing the window displays became an annual tradition for Chicagoans of all ages," said Gabe Fajuri, President of Potter & Potter. "Now new homes will have a chance to start their own traditions by owning a piece of Chicago holiday history."

This sale marks Potter & Potter’s second collaboration with MSI following its 2022 sale of the Museum’s well-loved Circus exhibit. These nearly life-sized painted plaster figures - which include men, women, children, and pets - were produced in the 1980s. Each has a distinctly old fashioned aesthetic to coincide with the theme the department store selected for that year’s holiday display. All are finely rendered and mounted to a motorized wooden base.

Browse the entire catalog - or place your bids - by clicking here.

HOW HISTORY UNFOLDS ON PAPER FROM THE ERIC C. CAREN COLLECTION, PART IX

This is the largest and most diverse of Eric C. Caren's nine auctions, with five centuries of material spanning some 550 lots. The sale covers the waterfront: from the religious wars of the sixteenth century and the Salem Witchcraft trials of 1692, to Awards won by Neil Armstrong (a gold medal) and Buzz Aldrin for photography on the moon in 1969 - and beyond.

The highlight is far and away the most important George Washington document in private hands, his 1775 commission to be Commander in Chief (seen at right), an official original by virtue of having been accomplished in the hand of, and signed by Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress. Other founding father lots are present including books owned and signed by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.

Archives abound including a fabulous and important Mormon letter grouping (1843-50s), along with a similarly fascinating Alaska Gold Rush-era photographic and manuscript archive, an annotated speech on computers used by JP Eckert inventor of ENIAC, one of the earliest printed articles on organized Black Baseball, 1871, a signed Babe Ruth photograph, and also perhaps the first headline ever on the rookie pitcher Ruth in a 1914 newspaper!

Also of historical import is a newly discovered first printing of Lincoln's immortal second Inaugural Address ("With Malice Towards None...") printed by the only newspaper actually in the Inaugural Parade in 1865, plus a first printing of The Gettysburg Address and the earliest (procurable and displayable) printing of The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

The selection of African Americana includes a very early, rare, and important Bradford imprint relating to the early 1700s Slave uprising in NYC during the reign of Queen Anne, an amazing period Virginia imprint relating to Thomas Jefferson and his illegitimate children with Sally Hemings, and many other highlights.

The most extraordinary lot (albeit not the most valuable) is an item that merges historical and original paper (damaged) collecting with fine art: an already worldwide acclaimed enormous collage portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

The first American comic strip in "The Idiot," is here as well as the actual pen that signed the treaty ending The Vietnam War. There is even a previously unknown and perhaps the earliest procurable notice for Levi's bluejeans in the sale.

In reality there is something for anyone with any budget... and as with any auction of this significance, there will invariably be record prices, as well as bargains.

Eric Caren has been called "The Babe Ruth of Historical Collecting" by both mainstream and trade press. He owns more than one million historical objects, and Christie's compared him to the greatest book collector ever, Sir Thomas Philipps. Caren is a pioneer in the field of paper Americana and ephemera, and is a Director Emeritus of The Ephemera Society of America, a member of The Grolier Club, The American Antiquarian Society, The National Press Club, a former member of ABAA, and the author of 12 books.

Potter & Potter is chosen as the best Auction House for the Rare & Fascinating by the Chicago Reader

The results are in and we are excited to have been chosen by the people of Chicago as the best auction house in town. Read the article here: Best of the Chicago Reader

"Potter & Potter isn't your typical auction house. The eclectic items it's sold over nearly two decades comprise a long and varied catalog of American history, nightmares and illusions both real and manufactured. Their notable sales include an exceptionally rare Houdini poster for $180,000, a 1914 suffragette medal for nearly $19,000, and an original lightning rifle prop from The Matrix for $78,000."

"Last year Potter presented 22 auctions, and this year they are planning for 24, including a collectors' trove of Napoleon memorabilia and deaccessioned material from the Museum of Science and Industry. Potter plans to grow their sales focused on fine art and pop culture, including movie memorabilia and toys."

Gallery Reception • Saturday, December 2 from 1-4pm

You - yes you! - are invited to our upcoming Contemporary, Outsider, Folk & Fine Art Auction Reception.

The reception will be held on Saturday, December 2nd from 1-4pm. (The auction will take place on Wednesday, December 6 at 10am CST.) The gallery event will be held in our Chicago offices, at 5001 W Belmont Ave. A conversation moderated by our Art Director, Aron Packer, is scheduled for 2pm. He remarks will be focused on the process of curating a collection - or rather, multiple collections - for auction, and will also highlight specific pieces of artwork and rare objects.

Highlights from the sale will be on display & all lots available for in-person examination. Light refreshments will be served. If you’d like to attend please RSVP to info@potterauctions.com, or call 773.472.1442.

A Personal Message Regarding our Houdiniana Sale

My father, Jerry Somerdin, was engrossed in the world of magic. He was a master at gaffing playing cards and spent nearly all of his free time perched above a magnifying glass preparing the gimmicks for the effects he’d invented: The Paradox Dollar, Suit Yourself, The Lusthaus Card System, Perfect Monte, and other amazing feats. I remember “The Magicians Little Assistant”, the wind up robot walking across the deck that kicked the spectators card. Every weekend my Dad would ask me, “Rob, are you coming to the city with me to Tannen’s magic shop?”

In Manhattan, I met Tony Slydini. I crossed paths with David Copperfield at a Tannen’s Jubilee. Another kid about my age, Chris Sarantakos (now Criss Angel), was in the scene, too. Little did I know how those formative experiences – now happy memories – would shape my life.

And yet, by December of 2006, I’d all but left magic in the rearview mirror, or so I thought. A local merchant was offering a shadowbox display for sale featuring a collage of material centered around the signature of “Harry Handcuff Houdini, Born April 6, 1874, Appleton Wisconsin.” Houdini had signed a vintage menu, as had his wife, Beatrice.

I was not a collector at the time – at least I didn’t think so. But then again, my entire childhood was encapsulated in that display, and I had to have it.

The asking price was high, but after negotiating, I bit the bullet and bought it for considerably less – “only” $5,000. 

That was the moment the madness began. I became obsessed with collecting Houdini memorabilia. Finding it, studying it, and owning it became almost like a sickness. But the ride I took, while wild, was one filled with friendships developed over a shared love of history and of Houdini.

Since that fateful date, I have spent over one million dollars building my collection, which is now being offered for sale by Potter & Potter Auctions. And yet, the catalog of this material represents only a portion of what I was able to gather. (Only two pieces of Houdiniana in this sale are from other collections.) Through friendship, through endless searching, through auctions, dealers, lists, conventions – you name it – I built up what I humbly submit as an important, and dare I say it, historically significant, collection of Houdiniana. So many personal items, some of them offered for sale in this auction, came directly from Houdini’s home and were part of his everyday life.

There’s a certain regret any collector feels when seeing what he’s assembled cross the auction block. But those feelings pale in comparison to the excitement I now feel as auction day approaches. Whether your fascination is for the “hardware” Houdini used (a piece of Molding Clay, a pair of handcuffs, or his “Perfect Mystery” escape), one of his books (my favorite is his annotated copy of New Era Card Tricks), or my Houdini Straitjacket, my fellow collectors can and will enjoy, study, and learn from these artifacts.

Any caretaker of a piece of history has a tremendous responsibility. Bearing that in mind, I’d like to wish the best of luck to all those who take over the stewardship that has enriched my life for nearly two decades. Now, it’s your turn.

-Robert Somerdin

The Ricky Jay Collection Auction Preview & Reception

Potter & Potter is pleased to host a pre-auction reception in anticipation of this special sale, on Thursday, February 23, 2023, from 5:00-8:00pm
 

All lots in the auction will be on display in our Chicago gallery, and wine, refreshments, and appetizers will be served. This event is open to the public and will provide an opportunity to preview the many unusual, curious, and rare objects from Mr. Jay's eclectic and singular collection.

Registration: Please RSVP in advance of the event, by 5:30 p.m. February 20, 2023 so we can prepare for attendees.

Location: Potter & Potter Auctions 5001 West Belmont Avenue, Chicago (at the corner of Belmont and Lavergne Avenues)

Parking: Street parking available.

CLICK HERE to register to the event.

CLICK HERE to order a deluxe hardbound auction catalog.

Potter & Potter Auctions Welcomes Creative Industry Expert Aron Packer To Lead Its Newly Launched Fine and Outsider Art Department

Packer brings over thirty years of gallery management and exhibit expertise to the company's newest division.

Potter & Potter Auctions is excited to announce that Aron Packer has joined the company as a Director and Specialist for the company's Fine and Outsider Art department. This department was recently established after Potter & Potter's debut art auction in December’s, 2022 Fine and Outsider Art Sale.

With Packer's appointment, the company plans to grow its art offering into several premier events per year, establish in-house expertise and thought leadership, and be top of mind for collectors and sellers looking to buy or deaccession quality fine and outsider art and related materials. 

According to Gabe Fajuri, President at Potter & Potter Auctions, "Adding a professional like Aron to our team is the perfect way to start the new year here at Potter & Potter, but more importantly, it helps set the tone for our company's expansion and growth into new markets. We're thrilled to work with a professional with a proven track record of success in the art market, and can't wait for him to curate the first sale as Director of Outsider & Fine art here.”  

Packer shares, "I am so excited to join the Potter & Potter Auctions' team. It is a dream opportunity to be surrounded by the kind of objects and ephemera I have loved and studied for decades. I hope to contribute my distinctive taste and aesthetics in Fine and Outsider Art to this phenomenal auction house and make an imprint in our regional art community and beyond."

The Ricky Jay Collection

February 25, 2023 at 10am CST ♦ in our Chicago Gallery

Potter & Potter is thrilled to bring to auction the remarkable, singular, eclectic collection of Ricky Jay, the lauded actor, celebrated sleight-of-hand magician, and noted author, who curated his own extensive collection of magic, circus, and showbiz ephemera - a one-of-a-kind wunderkammer. From the literature of cheating, gambling, and conmen, to vibrant vintage circus and sideshow posters, flamboyant text-filled broadsides spanning the last four centuries, and memorabilia of magic shows of yesteryear, this, the first of three auctions promises to be a true celebration of curious characters and the rare relics that tell their stories.

This first of three sales from The Ricky Jay Collection takes place in our Chicago gallery on Saturday, February 25th at 10am CST. The gallery will be open for pre-auction exhibition on February 23rd and 24th.

Potter & Potter Auctions Celebrates Harry Houdini's Death on Halloween by Selling The Great Magician's Automatic Flowering Rosebush Apparatus for a World Record $324,000!

This extraordinary illusion with full provenance to the beloved performer traded hands at the company's October 30th, 2022 Salon De Magie -The Klosterman Collection Part III event

Chicago, IL, October 31st, 2022 - Potter & Potter Auctions’ October magic event, timed to coincide with Halloween and the death of escape artist and magician Harry Houdini (3/24/1874- 10/31/1926), marked the occasion in the finest way, realizing $1.2 million.

Chicago, IL, October 31st, 2022 - Potter & Potter Auctions’ October magic event, timed to coincide with Halloween and the death of escape artist and magician Harry Houdini (3/24/1874- 10/31/1926), marked the occasion in the finest way, realizing $1.2 million. But no one anticipated the excitement - or record busting results - one phenomenal item would generate worldwide. That was lot #68, Harry Houdini's Automatic Flowering Rosebush. Estimated at $25,000-50,000, it realized $324,000, nearly 13x its estimate! Watch this lot being sold here: https://youtu.be/mWNEjnK6Smg

This object now holds world's record for the expensive piece of magic memorabilia sold at public auction. Houdini's Automatic Flowering Rosebush owned the spotlight at the sale.

Presale, Potter's experts agreed that this example was among the most elaborate and intricate a mechanisms they had encountered. Clearly, the auction world agreed. This device was made for Houdini in New York by R.S. Schlosser (and possibly other craftsmen) around 1924. In performance, Houdini placed a small earthenware pot on an elaborate metal table. Next, he planted a small red flower in the pot, and covered everything with a gauzy cloth. On Houdini’s command, the flower grew, slowly and visibly, eventually developing into a full size rose bush. To conclude, Houdini removed the plant in its pot from the tabletop and presented it to the audience. This trick was one of several flashy effects used to open Houdini’s final American tour.

Houdini's Automatic Flowering Rosebush was one of the crown jewels from the Ken Klosterman (1933-2020) collection. Klosterman, the former Chairman and CEO of the Klosterman Baking Company, had one of the finest private collections of magic memorabilia in the world. It consisted of thousands of vintage magic props, posters, books, and more - many of them one-of-a-kind pieces of historical significance - which were on display in the private museum built at the bottom of a mineshaft under his suburban Cincinnati home.

According to Gabe Fajuri, President at Potter & Potter Auctions,  "To call the moment in the saleroom electric is to sell it short. From the first bid, at $13,000 to the very end, at $324,000 - a number I still have a hard time grasping - the ride was a steady upward clip. For the last twenty bids or so, it was down to two competitors, and they battled it out fiercely. This sale breaks all records - not even the sale of Houdini's Water Torture Cell comes close."

A world of mystery and magic awaits behind the drab brick walls of a Northwest Side warehouse

The brick warehouse on the Northwest Side is a place you could drive by a thousand times without ever wondering what’s inside.

It doesn’t help that some of the windows are bricked over, others too high to see through.

The building’s owner, Gabe Fajuri, isn’t particularly worried about burglars.

“If you stole an automaton bear that drinks wine, who is going to sell it for you?” Fajuri said, pointing to a 1930s plug-in teddy bear holding a tin cup in one hand and a bottle of booze in the other.

Fajuri — a Detroit native whose neatly trimmed beard, thinning hair and glasses bring to mind a friendly shrink — is underselling the merchandise.

On the other side of the brick walls lies an auction house crammed with the weird and wonderful. Potter & Potter specializes in vintage magic memorabilia, although it handles many other items as well. On Oct. 29, Harry Houdini’s “automatic flowering rosebush,” a 1940s “vanishing radio” and an 1890 “spirit trumpet” will be among the hundreds of items on auction. There’s also a “Fu Manchu hand chopper” and countless books about magic and its history — all of it coming from a Cincinnati man with a museum built 85 feet beneath his home and reached by private elevator.

“You’d walk up to a mirror, and the mirror would swing open. Now there is a whole room decorated like an Egyptian tomb,” Fajuri said.

But Fajuri bristles at the suggestion that he’s merely running a magic or costume shop. “While I understand we sell posters with clowns on them, we’re not clowns ourselves. We’re selling [for example] a first edition of Moby Dick for $60,000 or something signed by Picasso,” he said. The auctioneers also recently handled the sale of the circus exhibit from the Museum of Science and Industry. One item, a mechanical re-creation of a big top, sold for $14,400, Fajuri said.

A stop at the front reception desk offers a taste of the building’s inner life. Last week, someone called wanting to know if Potter & Potter would be interested in auctioning off a painting by serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

“The number of conversations here that don’t happen anywhere else,” Fajuri said, before joking, “Would you mind taking the vanishing radio off of the spirit cabinet?” Fajuri said his interest in magic and collecting began as a child growing up in suburban Detroit. His father, a lawyer, would bring home books on magic tricks.

“By the time I was 15, I was going to conventions where people were talking about the history of collecting,” he said. In college, he sold items on eBay to make a little extra cash. He started his auction house — Potter is the English translation of his Jordanian name — in 2007.

Almost every object has a story. One day last week, Fajuri led a visitor through the warehouse. A scattering of circus mannequins lay on the concrete floor, their arms raised as if protesting the indignity of their circumstances. Fajuri picked up a vintage circus playbill for Frank I. Frayne, a rifleman. A favorite trick involved standing with his back to another performer and using a mirror to shoot an apple off the performer’s head.

During one performance, Frayne accidentally shot and killed his fiancée. “One story is that he committed suicide” after the accident, Fajuri said. “But the fact is, he lived another eight or nine years” and got married, he said.

The tour wound through a studio, where items are cataloged and photographed for upcoming auctions. The warehouse itself has a musty odor and is filled with every kind of curiosity imaginable: a roulette wheel from America’s gold rush days, carousel horses, a circus wagon wheel, a 1940s Philco TV.

Much of what Faguri auctions come from estates. “They say there are three Ds in the auction business: death, divorce and debt,” he said. Sometimes he’s in the house with a divorcing couple and must take on the role of a family counselor, he said.

He won’t take just anything — cookware, furniture, for example.

He’s sold mummified heads, “strange taxidermy” and torture devices from another era. “We’ve sold them on occasion. It’s not like we’re out looking for it,” he said. Buyers range from Hollywood celebrities (he won’t name them) to everyday folks — collectors and hoarders.

“Next week I’m going to North Carolina, and one of the two stops I’m making, the gentleman has six buildings filled with antiques,” Fajuri said.

Some objects fetch a few dollars at auction, all the way up to $150,000 last year for a wooden chest owned by the 19th century French illusionist, Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin.

And if anything, the pandemic has been a boon to business, said Fajuri and owners of several other Chicago-area auction houses. With lockdowns in place, it helped potential bidders get used to the idea of online auctions.

“We used to do a hybrid auction, where it was both live in-person bidders and also internet bidders. When COVID started, we went to a strictly online model, ... and we have not gone back and don’t have any plans to,” said John Leonard, who owns Leonard Auction, an estate auction house based in Addison.

“We have found that bidders like it better. They seem to respond better and they seem to be spending more money that way.”

Leonard said 2020 was the company’s best year ever.

“After we got over the initial shock, it ended up being the best year we ever had — 2020. And it’s gone up since then,” Fajuri said.

Some of Fajuri’s most intriguing objects can be found in his office: Gold-leafed books, some dating to the 1600s, that expose witches as charlatans. There’s a tiny silver chest that opens to reveal a twittering, fluttering songbird.

What he won’t reveal, unless it’s already widely known or explained in a book, are the secrets behind the magic objects in his possession. Many of Fajuri’s closest friends are magicians and he grew up doing magic tricks. He says he owes the magicians, past and present, an allegiance.

“It’s far more interesting to be bewildered or wonder at how it happened than it is to learn that I had a piece of double-stick tape in my hand,” he said.

2022 Auction Schedule & Highlights

The previous year was record-setting on many fronts at Potter & Potter, and 2022 is already off to an auspicious start.

January's Vintage poster sale - clocking in at a whopping 828 lots - realized several records, and can boast a 97% sell-through rate, with 800 of the lots finding new homes at the fall of the auctioneer's hammer. From civil rights and travel posters to circus lithographs and wartime propaganda, bidding was fierce and frequent for nearly 10 hours in our Chicago saleroom. Our next vintage poster auction is already on the calendar for this summer and consignments are already being accepted. Contact us should you wish to consign.

Our late winter and spring schedule is equally packed. Forthcoming annual installments in our go-to categories (gambling memorabilia and books, circus and sideshow collectibles, fine books & manuscripts) are all planned, along with the second installment from Ken Klosterman's Salon de Magie on March 26th. The deluxe hardbound catalog is now available for purchase.

Our Fine Literature & Modern Firsts sale, on April 21st, will bring to market cornerstones in both categories, from inscribed works by Fitgerald and Hemingway to high spots from the pens of their contemporaries (and those writers who inspired them).

Later this spring, look for a catalog of movie memorabilia collection that's truly "of the moment" - with a strong Chicago connection, too - alongside rare and unique Houdiniana in our May auction, some culled directly from the family's personal holdings and which has gone unseen for over 100 years.

The above are only a portion of what will find its way to Potter & Potter customers in the next four months - and rest of the year looks equally exciting, too. Stay tuned to this space or our email list for regular updates.
 

The Salon de Magie Virtual Tour

In anticipation of next week's auction, we've produced - along with our friends at Art of Play - a virtual tour of Ken Klosterman's famous Salon de Magie museum, led by Potter and Potter president and magic expert, Gabe Fajuri.

Click below to take a final look at one of the most significant and unusual collections of magicana in private hands. From Robert-Houdin's Light and Heavy Chest to Houdini memorabilia and more, this "museum down the mineshaft" was home to true relics of magic history.

SPECIAL NOTE: At the conclusion of Saturday's auction, Potter & Potter will conduct a brief Broken Wand ceremony for Ken Klosterman, a rite that has been used for decades to celebrate the life of a magician who has passed away. The ceremony will take place immediately following the auction, and will be broadcast via the live video stream.