1930 "Karlini the Great Magician" Poster
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GUEST:
The poster comes from a friend of mine who gave it to me after his mother passed, and he was getting rid of things. The story I got from it is that this is Karlini, who is a magician, and who wasn't a very, really, really a very good magician, but he was a magician who followed around a guy by the name of Karalini. And Karalini was a good magician, and he would always follow him and... You know, pretty much tried to steal his shine.
APPRAISER:
So, you know, one of the things that magicians do is, they thrive on misdirection and making things look different than they actually are.
GUEST:
True.
APPRAISER:
And part of the misdirection of Karlini was his title, "The Great Magician."
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
I think you got it when you said he wasn't really that great.
GUEST:
Right. (chuckling)
APPRAISER:
Um, I don't know the story you said about following a magician named Karalini.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
And a quick look at the internet confirmed that that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
But there is a little bit of history behind Karlini. He was actually a Dutch magician whose real name was Ludwig Trinka.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
Born in 1907. He died in 1963, and he did a lot of work in Berlin before the Second World War.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
During the war, it said he was arrested twice by the Nazis, and was most likely a French collaborator with the French Underground. So he was one of the good guys.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
The imagery is very specific. Magicians used to like to pose themselves as dealing with the arcane. They could commune with the other world.
GUEST:
Really.
APPRAISER:
And you see him here with his magic wand over a brazier with very mysterious green smoke coming out of it. He was trying to tell the people that he had some kind of supernatural power.
GUEST:
Oh, really?
APPRAISER:
He didn't, but that's what he was trying to tell people.
GUEST:
(chuckles): Oh, okay. Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
Now, this particular poster was printed in Vienna.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
So clearly, he not only performed in Berlin, in Germany, but he also performed in the Austrian capital, in Vienna. Now, you got it for nothing.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Any idea what it's worth?
GUEST:
Well, the guy who told me the story that obviously isn't true told me that it was worth, you know, in the price range of about $10,000.
APPRAISER:
About $10,000?
GUEST:
Between $8,000 to $10,000, yeah.
APPRAISER:
That's if it's real.
GUEST:
Exactly.
APPRAISER:
And if it's, if it's not real...
GUEST:
I don't, I have no clue other than what I saw on the internet a couple of days ago, where they was actually selling, like, 40, 44 bucks for these posters.
APPRAISER:
All right, for my next magic trick. Nothing up my sleeves.
GUEST:
Okay, okay. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
I'd like to produce the real value for you.
GUEST:
Okay, great.
APPRAISER:
But the good news is, it is a real lithograph-- it's from 1930.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
No question about its authenticity. So this is the poster that people in Vienna, in the years prior to the Second World War, would have seen on the streets advertising the show.
GUEST:
Really? That's great.
APPRAISER:
Here's the bad news. It's come up for auction several times over the past couple of years.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
As recently as 2008.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And in 2008, at auction, it sold for $1,000.
GUEST:
Oh. Okay.
APPRAISER:
The king of all magicians was Houdini.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And Houdini died in 1926, but a similar poster of Houdini's would probably be worth $8,000 to $10,000, because he's considered the gold standard of all magic memorabilia.
GUEST:
Okay. Okay. And the reality is, it's going back on the wall. I'm going to keep it, so... (laughing) All right, but thank you, so...
APPRAISER:
Fantastic.
GUEST:
All right, good.
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