True stories, or none.
We sell museum-grade prints of the golden age of stage magic — the great stone lithographs, the devils and imps, the levitations and vanishings. Every sheet names its performer, its printing firm where known, and the promise it made.
The rules we keep.
Pre-1931, or it doesn't hang.
Every artifact is a genuine pre-1931 work under the public-domain basis. Rights ship PENDING until the original is in hand and the archive locator is confirmed — that's what verified at acquisition means on a piece with no scan yet. We would rather show an honest blank than a beautiful fiction.
Copyright and likeness are two different questions.
A poster can be out of copyright while the performer's name and likeness are still actively claimed. So every performer piece carries a publicity status. The golden-age names long out of active claim — Kellar, Thurston, Alexander, Carter — are clear. One name is not, and we say so plainly.
The Escape King is sold as history, never as our marketing.
The most famous name in escape remains actively claimed today. That wing is publicity-gated: the artifact and the era, never the name in our headlines and never the claimed likeness on our walls. Each piece publishes only with sign-off or a license. If that means fewer sheets, fewer sheets.
The Masquerade is named for what it was.
The era's most famous “Chinese” conjuror was William Robinson, an American who performed his whole career in yellowface and died in 1918 by his own failed bullet-catch. We sell the artifact with the truth attached and skip the mystique. And we keep The Real East — Ching Ling Foo, Long Tack Sam, the genuine artists — deliberately separate from it.
The circus shelf stays on the bench.
The great circus successor marks were revived and are live, so that shelf is flagged and unbuilt. Historical printing-firm names — Strobridge, Otis, Adolph Friedländer, National Printing & Engraving — are historical, and we credit them gladly. No modern magic-brand marks, ever.
The late golden age unlocks in 2027.
The 1930s material sits behind the gate until its copyright term runs. It unlocks annually from January 2027, and not a season sooner. The wall waits.
The commission, and the one rule on it.
The Marquee Name bills you as the golden age would have — an original poster in the Strobridge register, set to your own name. Invented personas only. A producer's screen runs on every name entered, and no real performer's name or likeness can be set into a sheet. The ornament is original to the house; we don't lift another artist's imps to sell you yours.