Houdini auction summary

[Bill Mullins]

The Potter and Potter Houdiniana auction of 23 Aug 2014 had 286 lots advertised. It consisted mostly of items related in some way to Harry Houdini. The prices realized sheet records final bids for 280 of the 286 lots. I don't know if the other 6 were withdrawn or failed to meet the reserve.

Anomalies: The Prices Realized sheet data for lots 257A -286 are not consistent with the data on the Liveauctioneers website. I have assumed that there is no lot 257A, and that the sales prices on the LA website are accurate for lots 258 - 286. This leaves open the question of lot 286 on the PR sheet -- What item sold for $375? This analysis ignores it.

Amounts below in the form of (300, 250/300) are the winning bid and the auctioneer's low to high estimates of the eventual winning bid. Winning bids do not include buyer's premiums of 20%, if sold directly by P&P on site or via phone, and 23%, if the bid came through Liveauctioneers.com.

The total low/high estimate of all 286 lots was $304,575/425,850. The estimates for the lots which eventually sold was $278,325/389,100, and they brought a total of $490,980. (These numbers are the sums of a lot of numbers transcribed by hand -- I'd be surprised if I did them all perfectly, so the totals may be off a little)

Of the 280 lots that actually sold, 94 lots (34%) sold for amounts in the range of the low/high estimates. 49 (18%) lots sold for less than the low estimate, and 137 (49%) went for more than the high estimate.

The highest valued lot (both final bid and estimate) was #41, the wooden box used in Houdini's "Double Fold Death Defying Mystery" (final bid, $55,000, estimates 20,000/25,000). Other notably high lots included #200, a "King of Kards" lithograph ($17k, 12k/15k); #71, a Houdini spiritualism scrapbook which only recently became known to the community ($36k, 15k/20k); #67, an unpublished manuscript on witchcraft by Houdini ($15k, 6k/9k); #68, Houdini's manuscript for A Magician Among the Spirits ($16k, 7k/9k); and #60, an archive of papers relating to Houdini's slander trial in Cologne ($26k, 20k/30k). One lot that likely would have made this list was #195, a life-size sign board with a well-known image of Houdini (0, 25k/35k) which was featured on the front cover of the auction catalog – but it did not sell.

The lot which exceeded the high estimate by the greatest percentage was #52 (1800, 200/300), a TLS from Hardeen on handcuffs and escapes. Lot 39 (55k, 20k/25k), the Double Fold box, exceeded its high estimate by the greatest dollar amount. The lot for which the low estimate was too high by the greatest dollar amount was #199 ($2400, 4k/5k), a packing box challenge broadside.

A number of lots went for only 1/2 of the low estimate.

Erdnase continues to do well in auctions. Lot #228 was a 1944 Powner edition copy of Expert (550, 250/350) with the Fleming Book Company DJ (this DJ is scarcer than the normally seen red Powner DJ). Copies without DJs are regularly selling in the $100 - 150 region lately, so this is a substantial premium for the DJ.

Potter and Potter's next auction will be November 1st, featuring memorabilia from Channing Pollock and the library of James Alfredson.