2-716-853 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

John Nevil Maskelyne performs a 'spirit cabinet illusion', c1910. 'It is easy to stand up, even when tied, and to put an article through the opening with the mouth'. John Nevil Maskelyne took up a challenge by Sir Hiram Maxim to reproduce a trick originally performed by the Davenport brothers, fraudulent spiritualists from America, and by an imitator of theirs, a Mr Fay. Maskelyne (1839-1917) was a British stage magician, escapologist, paranormal investigator and inventor of the pay toilet. From "Mr. Maskelyne's Reply to Sir Hiram Maxim", published in "The Strand Magazine, an illustrated monthly", Volume XL - July to December 1910. [George Newnes Ltd, London, 1910]