[MESMERISM]

Poster: Faust – L'Hypnotiseur, Le Plus Grand Spirite et Magicien Du Mond

France: 1950's. 63cm x 43cm. Printed in red, white and black, depicting a grinning, skull faced figure in a tuxedo. Clean and bright with some fold creases, pinholes to corners, a touch of light soiling to the margins, and a small fingernail sized chip out of the lower left white border, not affecting the image. A very good, striking example.

A number of mesmerists, illusionists, and magicians have used the stage name "Faust" over the years, with one of the most prominent being the British stage illusionist Granville Taylor, the originator of a number of closely guarded original tricks and techniques. Taylor is not specifically known as a hypnotist or spiritualist, although as a lifelong stage magic presence he has most likely turned his hand to most things; additionally he was a performer in residence at Le Club Sexy in Paris during the 1950's, making him at least a candidate for the Faust in question. Another traceable piece of "Faust" performance ephemera depicts "Faust: The Royal Illusionist" (a title also used by the larger than life Horace Goldin) sawing a glamorous young woman in half, which is again a routine that Granville Taylor cannot be verified as having performed, so there is a possibility that there was another "Faust" mesmerising audiences in the 1950's, performing at Royal Variety shows and French nightclubs, but his true identity has disappeared into the vast and difficult to navigate archives of stage magic. The British magic community however, is known to have fairly strict rules regarding stage names, and would have ubndoubtedly considered one Faust at a time to be quite enough.
The French byline "The Hypnotist; The Greatest Spiritualist and Magician in the World" is currently in use by "Messmer", the contemporary Quebecois stage hypnotist, in rather the same fashion that names like "Faust" are passed on between performers and practitioners (Granville Taylor himself purchased the name from another performer early in his career). The lack of a venue on the poster suggests it was a lobby or in house promotional item rather than for general advertising use, alternatively given the origin it might have been designed for a venue specific "Colonnes Morris". A scarce piece of performance ephemera, with one example appearing at auction in 2016 as part of the Rex Conklin collection.

Price: $750.00

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