Whispering Imps

Now Sanders The Great is quite partial to a good whispering imp and Rhett Bryson has accumulated quite a collection of vintage magic posters showing them.

Rhett reveals: “The image of the magician getting the “secrets” from these underworld demi-devils apparently started with Harry Kellar (on his 1894 poster)” and goes on to say “Leon Hermann (nephew of Alexander) who overlapped the career of Kellar seems to be the first who copied the whispering imps. Not only did the Great Hermann include them, he used more imps!”

The collection is quite exhaustive with posters ranging from Kellar to Derren Brown, Herrmann the Great to Banachek. He even includes scans from badges and sheets of music.

It’s a great resource for scholars of the magical arts, I just wish he would organise them a little better: they are presented as one great long list that takes some scrolling through. Despite this, head over and take a look at this interesting facet of magical history.

Technorati: Magic banachek, derren brown, vintage magic, whispering imps

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