From the Curious to the Extraordinary (21 Jan 2020 A) Tue, 21st Jan 2020 Lot 345 Estimate: £400 - £600 + Fees MAGIC - MASKELYNE & COOKE, BERKELEY CASTLE, JANUARY 20TH 1870 In Honor of the Visit of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke the Celebrated Illusionists will appear as above in their new and original Entertainment, Entitled, A Grand Melange of Science and Mystery!! Mirthful and Inexplicable Wonders. Programme, Part One. An Exposition of Spiritual Manifestations, a la Daniel Home... , Nevil Maskelyne original decapitation scene... , an illustration of Chinese Jugglery... , original Transformation scene... Introducing the Mystic Freaks of Gyges! Or, the Monster Gorilla in his Enchanted Den, printed A. & J.T. Norman, Cheltenham, [1870?],. orig. souvenir programme printed in gilt on faded blue silk with decorative border, fringed braid with corner tassels 340mm x 260mm. John Nevil Maskelyne (1839-1917) was born in Cheltenham and descended from the astronomer royal Nevil Maskelyne. As a boy he was a keen amateur conjuror and in 1865 he exposed the famous spiritualists the Davenport brothers as imposters. This led Maskelyne and his friend George Alfred Cooke, a cabinet-maker, to embark on a joint career as professional magicians, their first appearance being at Jessop's Aviary Gardens, Cheltenham on 19th June 1865. They toured the provinces for eight years and eventually took a lease in the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly where they successfully remained until the buildings demolition in 1904. Maskelyne was also an inventor taking out patents on numerous commercial inventions, including a cash register, a typewriter and his coin-operated lock for public lavatories (1892) which remained in use in England until the 1950s. His son Nevil and grandsons Clive, Noel and Jasper continued the Maskelyne tradition of magic into the 1930s..