SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Souvenir Folder of Fake Séance By Lord Donegall. A set of humorously captioned photographs commemorating Edward Chichester, 6th Marquess of Donegall's, spoof séance in which he "managed to fool about twenty people, most of whom had experience of 'real' psychic photography" (Sunday Dispatch, p. 2). In 1932, Chichester famously exposed the medium John Myers, "the last spirit photographer of any note to practise in Britain", as a fraud (Keates).The main target of Donegall's (1903-1975) prank was Maurice Barbanell (1902-1981), the editor of Psychic News. Using photographic plates that had been tampered with, Donegall produced the "apparitions" of Queen Victoria, Nelson, Disraeli, and Dr. Crippen, and managed to convince Barbanell that they were genuine. An extract from the article in the Sunday Dispatch is printed on the rear wrapper, comprising the magician Will Goldston and occultist Roy Brandon's statement. The first photograph, depicting the newspaper's art editor Harry Folkard and his "guardian angel", was printed alongside the article. The other five images are apparently unpublished.

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