Robert-Houdin, Emile, & Pierre Edouard Brunnet | The Trunk Trick performed at the Théatre Robert-Houdin

Robert-Houdin, Emile, & Pierre Edouard Brunnet

Théatre Robert-Houdin. La Malle des Indes. Truc Merveilleux Entiérement Nouveau Exécuté tours les Soirs Cré par M.M. Robert-Houdin fils & Brunnet. Paris: Imp. Michelet, ca. 1875

Color lithograph poster (26 3/8 x 20 1/2 in.; 670 x 520 mm). Signed in the stone lower right Barbizet; light horizontal fold crease, a few closed marginal tears. Matted, framed, and glazed with Plexiglas.

Emile here recreates one of his father's most famous tricks, which applied the concept of electromagnetism to render immoveable a trunk or chest that had previously easily been lifted by an audience member. At the behest of Napoleon III, Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin performed this trick in French Algeria in 1852 to demonstrate the superiority of French magic over the conjuring of the local marabouts.