{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1463492"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1463492/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LD7620/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LD7620/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018LD7620","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1463492/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1463492","accessionNumber":"S.537-2018","objectType":"Playbill","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"'Professor' John Henry Anderson (1814-1874), the Scottish magician and theatrical entrepreneur better known as 'the Wizard of the North', was the showman and philanthropist regarded as the first magician to raise magic from street performance to respectable theatrical entertainment through his flair for publicity and his expertise with astonishing illusions, including the bullet-catching act. Anderson began performing magic aged seventeen and started a travelling show in 1837, aged twenty-three. He was still in his twenties when he was performing this engagement at Tulley's Hall Gravesend, comprising a remarkable amount of tricks and proving so popular that Mr. Tulley extended his engagement. He settled in London in 1840 where he performed at the New Strand Theatre, and in August 1845 opened his own 5,000-seat theatre the City Theatre on Glasgow Green, for which from 8th to 19th September 1845 he engaged an operatic company headed by the well-known tenor Sims Reeves. The theatre burned down in November 1845, only four months after its opening, but through the assistance of friends Anderson started a new London company at Covent Garden Theatre in 1846 and went on to perform around Europe, and in 1849 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.\n\nTulley's Bazaar was a timber-frame building built in 1835 at 62, Windmill Street on the corner of South Street. Milton Hall was built on the site in 1874 where Mr. Arnold housed a Museum of Antiquities. ","physicalDescription":"Letterpress playbill or poster advertising the continued engagement of The Great Wizard of the North by Mr. Tulley of Tulley's Bazaar, Musical Promenade and Concert Rooms. Featuring a list and descriptions of the wizard's tricks and the programme of music and its performers.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Letterpress on paper","categories":[{"text":"Magic","id":"THES269931"},{"text":"Music","id":"THES253065"},{"text":"Posters","id":"THES252963"},{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2018LD7620"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES345352"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"playbills","id":"AAT27216"}],[{"text":"posters","id":"AAT27221"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Gravesend","id":"x37216"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":"The printer's name is not on the programme, but local printers were usually used for programmes and playbills at this date, for ease of transport and because programme details were rarely fixed until quite late"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1840","earliest":"1840-01-01","latest":"1840-12-31"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"S.162-1987","id":"O1326285"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.2178-2014","id":"O1301891"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.2515-1986","id":"O1113004"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.146:444-2007","id":"O234501"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.146:446-2007","id":"O234518"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.146:448-2007","id":"O234530"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"S.146:449-2007","id":"O234523"},"association":"Object"}],"creditLine":"Gabrielle Enthoven Collection","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"37.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"24.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The playbill lists and describes the tricks that The Wizard of the North will perform - <i>The Goblets of Ptolemy, Enchanted Eggs, Magic Chain or Chinese Ring, Card Tricks, 'Saunter la Coupe', Demon Dice and Penetrable Beaker, The Telescopic Tell Tale, Impossible!!, Frankenstein Experiment, The Column of Colchis, Vegetable Weaving; The Eccaleobion, The Chest of Conficius, The Card of Cadmus, The Weird Watch or, Tempus Fugit</i>, ending with <i>The Gun Delusion!</i> -  a bullet-catching trick.\n\nIt includes the concert programme, featuring music by composers including Auber, Bishop, Donizetti, Blewitt, Weipert, Labitzky, Arne, Bellini and Strauss, and the comic songs <i>Election, I Want Money,</i> and <i>The Statty Fair</i> sung by Mr. J. Herbert. Mlle. Schiller sang <i>Cupid Face is One of Smiles</i> [sic] by Mark Lemon, and <i>Do Not Mingle.</i> The Company sang <i>The Chough and Crow</i> from Henry Bishop's opera <i>Guy Mannering</i>;  Mr. C. A. Bannister sang <i>Wanted A Governess</i> and <i>Brave Old Oak;</i> Mr. T. Woollidge sang <i>Pretty Mary,</i>and with Mr. Bannister the duet <i>Sound The Trumpet Boldly</i> from Bellini's <i>I Puratani, </i>and together performed <i>Laughing Glee</i> with Mr. Herbert. The singers performed together in other numbers, and Mr. H. Howell ('the celebrated singer from the Grecian saloon') and Mrs. Howell were listed as appearing at Tulley's Bazaar 'in the course of a few evenings'.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Poster advertising the engagement of John Henry Anderson (1814-1874) The Wizard of the North, Tulley's Bazaar, Gravesend, and a concert, 26th September 1840. Letterpress.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.537-2018"],"accessionNumberNum":"537","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2018,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-17","recordCreationDate":"2018-10-29","availableToBook":false}}