Christian Fechner’s Collection is amazing. The last three auctions - one in France and two in the United States - are only a portion of it. Most of the items that went on this auction were British and American. Mr. Fechner is keeping the French collection, which includes unique Robert Houdin posters, apparatus and an extensive library.

The second auction in the US took place at Swann Galleries in New York City, on Thursday, October 26, 2006. The beautiful illustrated catalog contained 375 lots. There was something for everyone: Antiquarian books (that included various editions of Hoffman, Pinetti and Erdnase) rare magazines, autographs, assorted memorabilia (autographs, photographs, letters, etc.), and our favorite: magic posters. There were more common posters like Carters, a Karmi, Levante, Dantes, and quite a few high end pieces – like some very nice Chung Ling Soos, Kellars and exquisite Ionia posters. The highlights among the posters were the two Houdinis: A rare “Amsterdam Jail Cell” image, and an “Eclipsing Sensation” poster.

Norm and I have been working all year long to acquire the Houdini Amsterdam Poster.

There was opportunity to view and examine the lots four days before the event, and during the morning on the day of the auction.

The auction started promptly at 1:30 pm. I would say there were approximately 75 people in the room, along with the many that participated via telephone and via the internet. Several well known collectors and magicians attended the event: Bill Kalush, David Blaine, Ricky Jay, John Gaughan, George Daily, Charles and Regina Reynolds, Roger Dreyer, Herb Zarrow, Meir Yedid, Mario Carrandi, etc.

The first lot was a Casino de Paris Annie Abbott poster. We wanted that poster. Things started with us obtaining that particular lot at $1900. This done, our strategy was to wait through 180 more lots for the Harry Houdini Amsterdam piece. Things went as expected during this event: The book people bid on the books they were looking for, the British magicians were able to go home with some David Devant treasures, poster collectors were able to obtain that image they were looking for…and then…there was mysterious bidder # 419.

Bidder # 419 obtained almost every high end piece in the auction – at a dear price, we might add. This bidder was determined to outbid anyone that stood in his way. The Monkey Cups and Balls Automaton was purchased for 30K, we think he also got the Chung Ling Soo stage costume at an unprecedented price of 13K. The auctioneer even joked: “I think someone is going to have fun on Halloween.” Another Soo poster was purchased by # 419 for 28K, and a Dante 3-sheet poster went for 20K! We might add that never, ever, have we seen a Dante sell for so much money. In our experience Dante posters range from $100 - $3000 tops. Mr. 419 purchased a rare Abe Duval poster for 15K and a David Devant cinematographic flip book for 44K (yes: $44,000 US Dollars).

Then came the Houdini posters…All we can say is that Norm put up a good fight against #419. Bidding went from $5000…to $20000…to $30000 to $55000, then Norm raised his card and bid $60000 and #419 bid $65000. We were tempted to bid to $70000, but it would have been too crazy. This poster was not worth that much. Most of the knowledgeable collectors stopped bidding at 30K, and the fight was between us and #419. We dropped out and #419 got the Houdini Amsterdam Jail Cell poster.

The next poster was Houdini’s Eclipsing Sensation. We already have this image, so we were just sat down and watched. Again, the same story repeated itself between a phone bidder and #419. The phone bidder dropped out at $60000, allowing #419 to outbid him by $65000.

The fortunate thing was that now we had enough money to bid on two posters we wanted – which we would not have bid on had we obtained the Houdini: A drop-dead-gorgeous Ionia 3-sheet (probably the most beautiful poster in the room), and a Ten-Ichi poster (we only know of two poster images of Ten-Ichi – this is one of them).

We paid dearly for the Ionia, but luckily #419 was not bidding against us. We think that this was because the catalog image of this poster could not capture how beautiful it was in person.

Overall, although we all spend a lot of money, everyone was quite happy after the auction – especially Mr. Fechner. Although he did not attend, we can imagine how happy he would be with a bidder like #419, who easily spent nearly half a million dollars.

And who was bidder #419? Originally I thought it must have been David Copperfield. Who else can afford such high prices? Also, he does not have the Houdini Eclipsing Sensation, and he has to go for it, I thought. Others surmised that it was a wealthy collector from Canada. Yet there was a rumor that it was someone outside of magic. The Auction House would not tell.

But in our current electronic age, news travel quite fast. A friend called us this afternoon to tell us to take a look at the Genii Forum and check out the link for an Indian Company that purchased the magic treasures.

And that is my humble report. Alongside this message I am posting a couple of photographs I took of the auction. Tomorrow night (Monday, October 30) I will be updating our website, and will include more photographs of the auction and some of the posters. Check us out then at Nielsen Magic.

Final thoughts: After finding out the identity of #419. We had a bittersweet feeling. This is the first time in any magic auction that a private company outside of magic bids for these treasures. We are happy for the seller, who is able to get better than expected prices for the items. But what is to become of these magic items? Will we ever see these rare posters and apparatus ever again? Currently, it is great to call George Daily or Mike Caveney and ask either of them: “I know you have that piece…can we use it in a book? Do you have information about it?” Or one can contact David Copperfield or Bill Kalush...or the Magic Circle…And now, a bunch of these items will be somewhere in India, owned by people outside our community. They will be gone!