Last November, I did a blog about when were some handcuff photos taken?
There was some discussion about when the following famous photo was taken that focused mainly on 1903 or 1904.
At the end of the day, we thought Houdini got it right and it was taken in March 1904 during his engagement at the London Hippodrome.
If that is the case, then how do we explain this rookie card of Harry Houdini from 1902.
So, the pictorial credits in “Notes to Houdini!! By Ken Silverman may have been correct.
They state that even though Houdini’s handwritten note on the photo above in the Morris Young collection says 1903, the identical photo in the Carrandi collection,shown on p. 2 has been dated 1900, by either Houdini or Bess.
Although the image shown on p.2 (similar left image below) is not quite the same.
So we have now ruled out 1903 and 1904, unless the 1902 date on the rookie card is wrong?
Paging Kevin Connolly. He’s the expert on Houdini cards. He could tell you if that card is 1902.
Great suggestion. I sent him an email and he replied in the comments below.
Joe asked me to chime in, but the info I have may make things even more complicated in dating this image.
Basically, when the Ogden’s Houdini card is sold or auctioned, it is described as 1902 Ogden’s card. Cigarette card collectors have their reference books for these cards, as we have the Kuethe book for magic tokens, Beckett Price Guide for baseball cards, Scott’s for stamps, etc. My guess is that many cigarette card collectors and dealers use Murray’s Cigarette Card Values.
Now for a couple of pieces of information that should make things as clear as mud. Murray’s Cigarette Card Values states that the set was first produced in 1902. They also mention that this series was produced from 1902 to 1907. They are the experts in cigarette cards and I just know a little something about Houdini and his cards. With their expertise, I can accept the 1902 to 1907 window they mention.
As for the Ogden’s Houdini card, here’s another curve ball. There are two variations of this card. The one variation is with a whitish box with “HOUDINI THE HANDCUFF KING” inside the box. The other variation “HOUDINI THE HANDCUFF KING” is in the beige field without the box. What years they were produced in I don’t know. I don’t think many, if any, knew of the variation till now.
This is about as much as I know about this card. I hope I helped more than hurt the discussion. Good Luck!
Thanks for chiming in Kevin. That is fascinating stuff, especially about the variations of the card. As far as a date for the image, the verdict is still out. Thanks again.
You’re quite welcomed.
I found the following link from a Guinea Gold collector:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/526604/thread/1400777276/last-1414606063/Guinea+Golds+-+an+introduction
that makes the following statement:
“There are also New Series 1, 1-400 cards, New series 1, B1-B400 and finally Series C which shows 1-100, 101-200, 201-300. These are issued between 1904-1907.”
The Ogden Houdini Guinea Gold Card is a New series 1, #B342 so if the above statement is true about these being issued between 1904 and 1907 then we are back to 1904 for the date of the image based on my previous post.
I submitted a question to the vintage non-sports card forum for clarification. Stay tuned!