The Paul Daniels Magic and Entertainment memorabilia auction expected to raise £200,000

Special Auction Services (SAS), in Newbury, Berkshire are to auction the magic and entertainment memorabilia collection of legendary British magician Paul Daniels.

 

The collection is being sold by Daniels' widow Debbie McGee with the auction taking place on 23-24 November 2022, when it is estimated to sell for £150,000 - £200,000.

Daniels was the first non-American magician to be awarded the 'Magician of the Year' award by the Academy of Magical Arts, and was known to purchase magic memorabilia and vintage magic posters when he travelled the world performing. He was a regular at international magic shows but rarely attended UK exhibitions. 

Daniels' collection of magic posters is believed to be the biggest ever sold at auction with almost 500 posters up for sale with an estimated value of £60,000 in total.  

The most valuable poster in the collection is believed to be one featuring Chung Ling Soo, the stage name of American magician William Robinson, who was killed on stage while performing a 'catch the bullet' trick in London. It has an estimate of £2,500.

Other items in the auction include a letter from Harry Houdini, playing cards, wands, magic top hats, as well as many stage props that featured on The Paul Daniels Television Show in the 1980's.

A star item is the Geomatrix, McGee’s favourite magic trick, as featured on The Paul Daniels Magic Show (video above), which is expected to sell for £12,000.

Also available, with an estimate of £30,000 is Paul Daniels' favourite trick 'The Phantom'. This is a levitation trick based on the Phantom of the Opera theatre show, for which Daniels himself designed many of the special effects.

The most valuable magic memorabilia is that of Harry Houdini, whose earliest known photograph sold for $65,000 at Potter & Potter's Houdiniana and Magic Memorabilia auction in May 2022. 

The same auction saw a 287 page scrapbook of newspaper clippings and ephemera dating from 1760 - 1920, belonging to Houdini, sell for $85,000.  

Many items end up in David Copperfield's private magic museum, a windowless warehouse in Las Vegas that houses over 200,000 magic artifacts, and Copperfield is naturally expected to be a bidder at the the Paul Daniel's auction.