Beschreibung:

Stoddart, Joseph, & Alfred StoddartTheatre du Mystère … Stodare … Le Sphinx la merveille de la mecque le rajah & le cipaye le parterre enchanté &a., &a., &a. [Paris:] Lith Van-Geleyn, [1866] Lithograph poster on 2 sheets (75 1/4 x 51 3/4 in.; 1912 x 1316 mm). Printed in red and black, with a large central cut of the face of the Sphinx; some surface soiling, some dampstaining and repair in upper left quadrant, a few creases and closed marginal tears. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas. A rare large-scale survival of a mid-nineteenth–century poster featuring one of the most heralded illusions of magic. An optical illusion invented by Thomas Tobin of the Royal Polytechnic Institution, the Sphinx Illusion was made famous by Joseph Stoddart, who presented it in his stage guise as Colonel Stodare: "Holding a small, cube-shaped box, … Stodare solemnly stepped on stage. He placed the box on an undraped table—the audience could clearly see beneath the table to the stage curtains behind and perceive that nothing was being concealed. The magician removed the front of the box, revealing a realistic human head dressed in an Egyptian headdress. … The head opened its eyes, looked around, and then recited a long, dramatic poem. … Stodare closed the box again, stepped forward, and reopened it, revealing that the mysterious Sphinx head had now been transformed into a pile of ashes" (Magic, p. 56). Joseph Stoddart debuted the effect in 1865 in London, where it caused a sensation; he even performed the illusion for Queen Victoria. But Stoddard died in October 1866, and this Paris engagement of the Sphinx, at Salle Herz, Rue de la Victoire, beginning November 24, was presented by his brother Alfred, who also adopted the stage name of Stodare.