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THB[TARBELL] Baker System and Tarbell System Advertising Liter...
Lot 270
![[TARBELL] Baker System and Tarbell System Advertising Liter...](https://s1.img.bidsquare.com/item/xl/3504/35046956.jpeg?t=1VNE7R)
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Live Auction in Progress ... Currently on Lot Estimate:
$200 - $400
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About Auction
Live
By Potter & Potter Auctions
Jan 24, 2026
Set Reminder
2026-01-24 12:00:00
2026-01-24 12:00:00
America/New_York
Bidsquare
Bidsquare : Winter Magic Auction - Online Only
https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/potter-potter/winter-magic-auction---online-only-21867
Our first magic auction of 2026 offered an array of collectibles in all familiar categories, from micro magic to stage tricks; and books from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first will cross the block, in addition to posters, spook show window cards, photographs, Houdiniana, and magicana of all types. Prices Realized Potter & Potter Auctions info@potterauctions.com
Our first magic auction of 2026 offered an array of collectibles in all familiar categories, from micro magic to stage tricks; and books from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first will cross the block, in addition to posters, spook show window cards, photographs, Houdiniana, and magicana of all types. Prices Realized Potter & Potter Auctions info@potterauctions.com
View Full Catalog (384)
- Lot Description
[TARBELL] Baker System and Tarbell System Advertising Literature. Chicago, 1926/27. A group of pictorial form letters, applications, envelopes, and other paperwork related to the precursor to the Tarbell System (later, the Tarbell Course in Magic), issued from its home at 1926 Sunnyside Ave., Chicago. Includes ten items, 4to and smaller, and all in very good condition. Most bear the name of Walter Baker or the ?Baker System.? It was Baker who was meant to organize and head this famous mail-order course in sleight-of-hand; but Harlan Tarbell?s likeness and name would become associated with it when Baker dropped out, and thus, Tarbell?s name became synonymous with the pedagogical course teaching all aspects of magic and its allied arts.In the intervening years Baker?s involvement and name has been largely forgotten and the popularity of Tarbell?s course, which he wrote, edited, and illustrated, has persisted for some 100 years thanks both to the quality of its content and the accessibility and ubiquity of the various lessons, which were originally sold by mail but later anthologized in book form by Tannen?s and D. Robbins filling eight hardbound volumes. A SCARCE group of material related to this most storied of magical instructional courses.
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