News

Houdini Returns: The Centennial Auction

Chicago, IL — Marking 100 years since the death of Harry Houdini Potter & Potter Auctions will present a landmark sale of Houdini memorabilia on October 31, 2026 at the famed Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. Titled Houdini Returns: The Centennial Auction, the sale brings to the public for the very first time 100 historic items, many of which were personally owned by Houdini.

Drawn from the lifelong collection of noted Houdini collector Kevin Connolly, the auction represents one of the most significant single-owner offerings of Houdini material ever assembled. The sale spans the magician’s early career through his rise to international fame, and beyond.

Feature lots include signed works from Houdini’s library, Houdini-owned handcuffs, his family photographs, personal correspondence, rare posters, and a striking life-size lobby photograph used to promote Houdini’s shows. Among the most remarkable items is an early photograph of Houdini and his wife Bess alongside the cast of the Welsh Brothers Circus. Annotated in Houdini’s own hand this photograph was recently featured on the cover of a major publication pertaining to Houdini’s early career.

Potter & Potter estimates the total value of these collectibles between $300,000 and $500,000. Individual lots are expected to reach as much as $25,000. The sale offers collectors an unprecedented opportunity to acquire objects of value which were personally handled and preserved by Houdini himself.

Potter & Potter Auctions has long been at the forefront of the market for magic memorabilia. Surpassing virtually all other auction house sales that pertain to material related to Harry Houdini. Notable results include Houdini’s Automatic Flowering Rosebush which was used during his final American tour. This piece of apparatus realized $324,000 at auction, the highest price paid for any magic related object. Record-setting prices for Houdini pieces such as performance artifacts, signed books, autographed manuscripts, and rare posters have defined the market for Houdini memorabilia and has established the firm as the world’s leading destination for collectors.

“Houdini has been represented in Potter & Potter’s auctions from day one, and he has appeared in nearly every magic sale we’ve conducted over the past two decades,” said Gabe Fajuri, President of Potter & Potter Auctions. “Even now, 100 years after his death, Houdini’s name remains synonymous with magic itself. We’re honored to partner with lifelong collector Kevin Connolly to present 100 rare relics that he has spent decades assembling. These are deeply personal objects - items Houdini owned, used, and lived with, and many will be offered publicly for the first time. To present them in a live auction at the world famous Magic Castle on the centennial of his death makes this a truly once-in-a-lifetime event.”

Bidding will take place live at the Magic Castle for invited guests and club members. Interested parties may also participate via phone or online at www.potterauctions.com. Seating for the live event is limited.

All lots will be available for the public to view at Potter & Potter’s Chicago gallery throughout the month of October. In advance of the sale, Potter and Potter will offer a rare opportunity to preview the highlights of the auction at the Magic Castle. A panel discussion on Houdini’s life and legacy will take place the day before the live auction.

A full-color auction catalog will accompany the event, as well as a limited edition of 100 deluxe hardbound copies produced to commemorate the centennial. The day following the live event, Potter & Potter will conduct a second online-only auction of associated Houdiniana and magic memorabilia.

New Auction Software Launched!

Beginning in February of 2026, Potter & Potter has upgraded its online auction bidding and auction software. The new design and system will provide an enhanced bidder experience on all platforms, both mobile, and desktop. 

For the sake of safety and security, all returning bidders must update their credentials and password, and also your credit card. 

Follow this link to do so, or, if you are a new bidder, to browse through upcoming auctions and to register for an account. 

Good luck to all who participate on auction day! 

Gallery Reception - Tues., Oct. 7, 6-8 PM.

Potter & Potter is proud to announce Belonging: The Art of American Fraternal Societies on Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 10am CST. This debut auction - the first of its kind - celebrates the art, ritual objects, and ephemera of American fraternal organizations from the 19th century onward.

Featuring works gathered over the past four decades, Bruce and Julie Webb of Webb Gallery have collected a well-rounded group of this fascinating and obscure material. There are extensive examples of rare DeMoulin & Co, (Greenville, Illinois) apparatus: Spanking devices, goats, a surprise chair, lung tester and multiple vintage catalogs featuring these strange yet once common offerings.

Numerous other categories include early chromolithographs, early photography, ephemera, architectural elements and signage, banners, stage backdrops, costumes and regalia, along with art and folk art inspired by these once ubiquitous social groups.

Select Rarities At Auction Sept. 4 2025

Potter and Potter is proud to offer a first edition of The Book of Mormon as the lead lot in its Select Rarities auction on September 4, 2025. 

This legendary tome is the most important religious book printed in the United States in the nineteenth century, and the first edition offered for sale is one of just 5,000 printed. 

The auction also boasts a host of other treasures: a beautiful complete collection of the Lakeside Classics; the first appearance of the superhero, Wolverine, in The Incredible Hulk #181;  the scarce first edition Langston Hughes’ The Negro Mother (one of only 17 copies signed by him); a specially bound copy of the screenplay of Gone with the Wind created for Norma Shearer by David O. Selznick; an autograph note signed by Abraham Lincoln and other Lincoln-related material; an original mugshot of Malcolm Little (later known as Malcolm X); an advance review copy of To Kill a Mockingbird; and much more. Each lot in the auction was carefully selected for inclusion based on its rarity or historical significance. 

Select Rarities: Exceptional Books and Manuscripts begins both live in the Potter & Potter saleroom and online at 10am CST on Thursday, September 4, 2025. 

Iconic Field's Christmas Window Displays Head to Auction

Potter & Potter Brings Historic Marshall Field's Christmas Window Automatons to Auction

These moving display figures are being offered on behalf of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

We're excited to offer 30 moving Christmas window display figures from retailer Marshall Field's as part of our 752-lot Coin Op and Advertising sale, taking place September 12, 2024. The event will be held live in our Chicago gallery, located at 5001 W. Belmont Avenue in Chicago, and will be live streamed on our website. Items will be available for viewing by appointment, or during the week of the auction, from Sept. 9 - 11.

This automaton collection, currently held by Chicago's Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (MSI), was part of the legacy Chicagoland department store’s famed tradition of animated Christmas window displays. These attracted thousands of shoppers to the store’s flagship location on State Street every holiday season - a tradition that debuted in 1897. By the mid-1940s, these displays filled all 13 windows on the store’s State Street facade and told a story as visitors moved from window to window. "Visiting the store and viewing the window displays became an annual tradition for Chicagoans of all ages," said Gabe Fajuri, President of Potter & Potter. "Now new homes will have a chance to start their own traditions by owning a piece of Chicago holiday history."

This sale marks Potter & Potter’s second collaboration with MSI following its 2022 sale of the Museum’s well-loved Circus exhibit. These nearly life-sized painted plaster figures - which include men, women, children, and pets - were produced in the 1980s. Each has a distinctly old fashioned aesthetic to coincide with the theme the department store selected for that year’s holiday display. All are finely rendered and mounted to a motorized wooden base.

Browse the entire catalog - or place your bids - by clicking here.

HOW HISTORY UNFOLDS ON PAPER FROM THE ERIC C. CAREN COLLECTION, PART IX

This is the largest and most diverse of Eric C. Caren's nine auctions, with five centuries of material spanning some 550 lots. The sale covers the waterfront: from the religious wars of the sixteenth century and the Salem Witchcraft trials of 1692, to Awards won by Neil Armstrong (a gold medal) and Buzz Aldrin for photography on the moon in 1969 - and beyond.

The highlight is far and away the most important George Washington document in private hands, his 1775 commission to be Commander in Chief (seen at right), an official original by virtue of having been accomplished in the hand of, and signed by Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress. Other founding father lots are present including books owned and signed by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.

Archives abound including a fabulous and important Mormon letter grouping (1843-50s), along with a similarly fascinating Alaska Gold Rush-era photographic and manuscript archive, an annotated speech on computers used by JP Eckert inventor of ENIAC, one of the earliest printed articles on organized Black Baseball, 1871, a signed Babe Ruth photograph, and also perhaps the first headline ever on the rookie pitcher Ruth in a 1914 newspaper!

Also of historical import is a newly discovered first printing of Lincoln's immortal second Inaugural Address ("With Malice Towards None...") printed by the only newspaper actually in the Inaugural Parade in 1865, plus a first printing of The Gettysburg Address and the earliest (procurable and displayable) printing of The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

The selection of African Americana includes a very early, rare, and important Bradford imprint relating to the early 1700s Slave uprising in NYC during the reign of Queen Anne, an amazing period Virginia imprint relating to Thomas Jefferson and his illegitimate children with Sally Hemings, and many other highlights.

The most extraordinary lot (albeit not the most valuable) is an item that merges historical and original paper (damaged) collecting with fine art: an already worldwide acclaimed enormous collage portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

The first American comic strip in "The Idiot," is here as well as the actual pen that signed the treaty ending The Vietnam War. There is even a previously unknown and perhaps the earliest procurable notice for Levi's bluejeans in the sale.

In reality there is something for anyone with any budget... and as with any auction of this significance, there will invariably be record prices, as well as bargains.

Eric Caren has been called "The Babe Ruth of Historical Collecting" by both mainstream and trade press. He owns more than one million historical objects, and Christie's compared him to the greatest book collector ever, Sir Thomas Philipps. Caren is a pioneer in the field of paper Americana and ephemera, and is a Director Emeritus of The Ephemera Society of America, a member of The Grolier Club, The American Antiquarian Society, The National Press Club, a former member of ABAA, and the author of 12 books.

Potter & Potter is chosen as the best Auction House for the Rare & Fascinating by the Chicago Reader

The results are in and we are excited to have been chosen by the people of Chicago as the best auction house in town. Read the article here: Best of the Chicago Reader

"Potter & Potter isn't your typical auction house. The eclectic items it's sold over nearly two decades comprise a long and varied catalog of American history, nightmares and illusions both real and manufactured. Their notable sales include an exceptionally rare Houdini poster for $180,000, a 1914 suffragette medal for nearly $19,000, and an original lightning rifle prop from The Matrix for $78,000."

"Last year Potter presented 22 auctions, and this year they are planning for 24, including a collectors' trove of Napoleon memorabilia and deaccessioned material from the Museum of Science and Industry. Potter plans to grow their sales focused on fine art and pop culture, including movie memorabilia and toys."

Gallery Reception • Saturday, December 2 from 1-4pm

You - yes you! - are invited to our upcoming Contemporary, Outsider, Folk & Fine Art Auction Reception.

The reception will be held on Saturday, December 2nd from 1-4pm. (The auction will take place on Wednesday, December 6 at 10am CST.) The gallery event will be held in our Chicago offices, at 5001 W Belmont Ave. A conversation moderated by our Art Director, Aron Packer, is scheduled for 2pm. He remarks will be focused on the process of curating a collection - or rather, multiple collections - for auction, and will also highlight specific pieces of artwork and rare objects.

Highlights from the sale will be on display & all lots available for in-person examination. Light refreshments will be served. If you’d like to attend please RSVP to info@potterauctions.com, or call 773.472.1442.

A Personal Message Regarding our Houdiniana Sale

My father, Jerry Somerdin, was engrossed in the world of magic. He was a master at gaffing playing cards and spent nearly all of his free time perched above a magnifying glass preparing the gimmicks for the effects he’d invented: The Paradox Dollar, Suit Yourself, The Lusthaus Card System, Perfect Monte, and other amazing feats. I remember “The Magicians Little Assistant”, the wind up robot walking across the deck that kicked the spectators card. Every weekend my Dad would ask me, “Rob, are you coming to the city with me to Tannen’s magic shop?”

In Manhattan, I met Tony Slydini. I crossed paths with David Copperfield at a Tannen’s Jubilee. Another kid about my age, Chris Sarantakos (now Criss Angel), was in the scene, too. Little did I know how those formative experiences – now happy memories – would shape my life.

And yet, by December of 2006, I’d all but left magic in the rearview mirror, or so I thought. A local merchant was offering a shadowbox display for sale featuring a collage of material centered around the signature of “Harry Handcuff Houdini, Born April 6, 1874, Appleton Wisconsin.” Houdini had signed a vintage menu, as had his wife, Beatrice.

I was not a collector at the time – at least I didn’t think so. But then again, my entire childhood was encapsulated in that display, and I had to have it.

The asking price was high, but after negotiating, I bit the bullet and bought it for considerably less – “only” $5,000. 

That was the moment the madness began. I became obsessed with collecting Houdini memorabilia. Finding it, studying it, and owning it became almost like a sickness. But the ride I took, while wild, was one filled with friendships developed over a shared love of history and of Houdini.

Since that fateful date, I have spent over one million dollars building my collection, which is now being offered for sale by Potter & Potter Auctions. And yet, the catalog of this material represents only a portion of what I was able to gather. (Only two pieces of Houdiniana in this sale are from other collections.) Through friendship, through endless searching, through auctions, dealers, lists, conventions – you name it – I built up what I humbly submit as an important, and dare I say it, historically significant, collection of Houdiniana. So many personal items, some of them offered for sale in this auction, came directly from Houdini’s home and were part of his everyday life.

There’s a certain regret any collector feels when seeing what he’s assembled cross the auction block. But those feelings pale in comparison to the excitement I now feel as auction day approaches. Whether your fascination is for the “hardware” Houdini used (a piece of Molding Clay, a pair of handcuffs, or his “Perfect Mystery” escape), one of his books (my favorite is his annotated copy of New Era Card Tricks), or my Houdini Straitjacket, my fellow collectors can and will enjoy, study, and learn from these artifacts.

Any caretaker of a piece of history has a tremendous responsibility. Bearing that in mind, I’d like to wish the best of luck to all those who take over the stewardship that has enriched my life for nearly two decades. Now, it’s your turn.

-Robert Somerdin

The Ricky Jay Collection Auction Preview & Reception

Potter & Potter is pleased to host a pre-auction reception in anticipation of this special sale, on Thursday, February 23, 2023, from 5:00-8:00pm
 

All lots in the auction will be on display in our Chicago gallery, and wine, refreshments, and appetizers will be served. This event is open to the public and will provide an opportunity to preview the many unusual, curious, and rare objects from Mr. Jay's eclectic and singular collection.

Registration: Please RSVP in advance of the event, by 5:30 p.m. February 20, 2023 so we can prepare for attendees.

Location: Potter & Potter Auctions 5001 West Belmont Avenue, Chicago (at the corner of Belmont and Lavergne Avenues)

Parking: Street parking available.

CLICK HERE to register to the event.

CLICK HERE to order a deluxe hardbound auction catalog.

Potter & Potter Auctions Welcomes Creative Industry Expert Aron Packer To Lead Its Newly Launched Fine and Outsider Art Department

Packer brings over thirty years of gallery management and exhibit expertise to the company's newest division.

Potter & Potter Auctions is excited to announce that Aron Packer has joined the company as a Director and Specialist for the company's Fine and Outsider Art department. This department was recently established after Potter & Potter's debut art auction in December’s, 2022 Fine and Outsider Art Sale.

With Packer's appointment, the company plans to grow its art offering into several premier events per year, establish in-house expertise and thought leadership, and be top of mind for collectors and sellers looking to buy or deaccession quality fine and outsider art and related materials. 

According to Gabe Fajuri, President at Potter & Potter Auctions, "Adding a professional like Aron to our team is the perfect way to start the new year here at Potter & Potter, but more importantly, it helps set the tone for our company's expansion and growth into new markets. We're thrilled to work with a professional with a proven track record of success in the art market, and can't wait for him to curate the first sale as Director of Outsider & Fine art here.”  

Packer shares, "I am so excited to join the Potter & Potter Auctions' team. It is a dream opportunity to be surrounded by the kind of objects and ephemera I have loved and studied for decades. I hope to contribute my distinctive taste and aesthetics in Fine and Outsider Art to this phenomenal auction house and make an imprint in our regional art community and beyond."

The Ricky Jay Collection

February 25, 2023 at 10am CST ♦ in our Chicago Gallery

Potter & Potter is thrilled to bring to auction the remarkable, singular, eclectic collection of Ricky Jay, the lauded actor, celebrated sleight-of-hand magician, and noted author, who curated his own extensive collection of magic, circus, and showbiz ephemera - a one-of-a-kind wunderkammer. From the literature of cheating, gambling, and conmen, to vibrant vintage circus and sideshow posters, flamboyant text-filled broadsides spanning the last four centuries, and memorabilia of magic shows of yesteryear, this, the first of three auctions promises to be a true celebration of curious characters and the rare relics that tell their stories.

This first of three sales from The Ricky Jay Collection takes place in our Chicago gallery on Saturday, February 25th at 10am CST. The gallery will be open for pre-auction exhibition on February 23rd and 24th.