Handcuff Secrets

£7,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

This desirable copy of Houdini’s Handcuff Secrets includes a signed photograph, dated 27 September 1911, tipped onto the front pastedown. It is further distinguished having belonged to Reginald Townshend, who famously challenged Houdini’s brother, Theo Hardeen (1876-1945) to escape from a contraption called the “crazy crib” in 1912. The book is replete with ephemera recording the event. By 1904, Houdini was already known as the “King of Handcuffs” but his first book The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin didn’t appear until 1908, which was a debunking of his former hero. It was reprinted the next year as The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin together with a Treatise on Handcuff Secrets which was preparatory to this stand-alone volume published in the same year. It continues Houdini’s pre-occupation with preserving the reputation of magicians “who work on thoroughly legitimate lines” and to discourage his imitators. The book includes illustrated instructions on opening sealed handcuffs, lock pickers, safe openers, skeleton keys, and escaping strait-jackets. At the time of publication, Houdini was the most famous magician in the world and had trained his brother, Theo, in magic and escapology. Performing under the name Hardeen, he was also extremely popular with audiences: an excellent magician and raconteur. In 1912, Hardeen was performing at the National Theatre in Boston. Reginald Townsend, and three of his fellow Harvard classmates, saw his show and issued a challenge: “We the undersigned

• Year: 1910

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