You’ll like this... not a lot but lots

MAGICIAN Paul Daniels’s personal collection of tricks, books, posters and costumes fetched more than £156,000 at auction.

The lots included the magician’s toupée, which sold for £2,730, a transposition cloak and masks, which went for £3,250, and a letter from Harry Houdini to another magician, which fetched £1,690.

His magic posters — the largest collection ever sold in the UK — made a total of about £90,000 alone.

Daniels, who lived in Wargrave before his death in 2016, aged 77, had collected magic memorabilia for many years.

His widow, Debbie McGee, who was his on-stage assistant, said the process of going through the collection had brought back memories of him and the showbusiness careers they shared.

McGee, 63, said: “At first it was not a good process. You feel like you’re giving them away, when you’re going through their clothes, their toothbrush — what do you do with their toothbrush? You can’t give it to charity but you can’t bin it either.

“But then it became a happier process. A lot of it is memorabilia and I thought of the joy he got from it and the joy other people will get from it. I think it’s the right thing to do to let other people enjoy it.”

McGee said that her favourite lot was the Geometrix illusion, a 6ft box which she would be locked into while Daniels pushed swords through it.

She said: “I’ve also loved going through these amazing old magic books and some newer ones too. They’re so interesting to read, these stories of magicians from the turn of the century.

“Going through them reminded me of the stories Paul used to tell me. It’s his library and it took him years to build up. He loved anything to do with magic, it was his passion.

“Anyone who met him would know about it — even if you met him in the post office, he would do a card trick or something. I still get stopped by people in the village now saying how much they miss him.”

Thomas Forrester, auctioneer and director of Special Auction Services in Newbury, where the auction took place on Wednesday and Thursday last week, said: “I remember watching Paul Daniels on TV as a child in my pyjamas.

“It was great — we would sit down and watch it as a family.

“He was such an institution. He changed the course of magic in the 20th century and because he was on the BBC, it was accessible.

“‘Paul and Debbie’ is a phrase in our language. Lots of collectors think, ‘I want a piece of that’.

“Debbie and I had been in discussion for a year and a bit. I didn’t know how much there was.

“We had more than 700 lots here. It took lots of trips to transport it here, where it was stored.

“Debbie and I started the process of going through it, cataloguing it with all the information, the layout, then on to the process of selling it.”

The auction room was filled with costumes including Phantom of the Opera masks and cloaks, a red box with swords going through it, a white violin, large playing cards, posters, gloves, large dice, boxes of books and DVDs and signed photographs of McGee. There were also Paul Daniels magic trick box sets.

There were about 15 people in the auction room with many more joining online.

Mr Forrester said that he had received interest from all over the world and that lots of magicians were bidding.

“We’ve had bids from all over the world, Portugal, Japan, Holland, the USA and Australia,” he said. “Magic is universal — you don’t need a translation.”

Daniels’s son, Gary, a fitness presenter and personal trainer who lives in Cheltenham, was at the auction.

He said: “It’s very strange. I’ve lost other relatives but this is such a public way of emptying their things. It brings up a lot of emotions and the loss we feel without him.

“But other people can get enjoyment from it, which is better than it sitting in the shed rusting and rotting. It’s nice to see other people getting excited.

“Some books are from the late 1800s and you just can’t get hold of them.

“Collecting was his passion. He had to know everything about magic and how it was done.”

He said his favourite was his father’s flying carpet illusion, which he helped to repair for a pantomime after it broke.

He said: “Dad loved the Phantom of the Opera but he also loved little things like card tricks which you could do in the street. He would do them for anyone.”

Magician Chris Cross, who did a show with Daniels, had come from Newcastle for the auction. He said: “Paul Daniels was my hero. I went to see him when I was 12 at the Whitley Bay Playhouse. I already had an interest in magic and I went to see the master at work. It was then I knew that that’s what I wanted to do full time for the rest of my life.”

Mr Cross said he hoped to include some of the props and tricks in his own show as well as selling others online.

“I bought loads,” he said. “I already owned his human cannon and triple trunk escape. It’s nice to keep it together and keep it in England.

“I bought the card stab trick. I watched him perform that one. It was a regular trick of his in his later years. I got it for around £500. I bought a Chung Ling Soo poster for £2,400.

“I managed to pick up a leather cup and ball trick that slipped under the radar. I got it in a box of other tricks.

“I got a picture frame on an easel, which he performed on his House of Cards TV special. He would spin a pack of cards and one would appear behind the glass.

“I got a real gem in a box full of booklets. There were some handwritten notes tucked inside a book of his first double act with his first wife Jackie. It was a set list and music cues and a list of everything in his show.

“He toured working men’s clubs in the north of England in the early Seventies, before he became famous.

“I would have bid on that separately. I found it in a box of booklets for £20. It’s a really rare piece of memorabilia.”

Magician Michael King, from Hampshire, said: “I met Paul Daniels at Cliveden. He was a guest at the dinner and I was the magician. I was nervous. It was like taking painting by numbers to Picasso.

“He and Debbie were so nice. They seemed very professional, hugely knowledgeable. He was an icon.”

Friends and magic enthusiasts Mike Roberts and Bob Gill had travelled together from Swindon to the auction.

Mr Roberts said: “I’m here because it’s nice to see the tricks in the flesh after seeing them on TV. I’m not bidding on anything. I’ve still got an attic full.

“I was a part-time magician for children’s parties in the Eighties. I was in electrics full-time.

“Paul was the greatest salesman. He kept magic alive as people would think, ‘Why don’t we get a magician for the children’s party?’”

Mr Gill, who wrote a bibliography on magic, said: “I’m here partly because I’m nosey. I met Paul, who had a reputation as a good collector.

“I’m a collector myself and have a modest library. These prices are outrageous. I’m guessing it is because of the Paul Daniels stamp. A book went for £180 but I guarantee I could get it for £18.

“I’m a trick monkey, I love buying tricks. You’d be amazed what we idiots pay for tricks. We’re like kids in the audience as we want to know how it works.”

McGee said: “I’m not really a collector but I have a couple of nice pieces. I have an African belt, or you can use it as a necklace, which has an amulet that belonged to Dame Margot Fonteyn. It’s tin and Paul gave it to me for our tin wedding anniversary.

“I have a couple of Limoges cups and saucers which are very elegant.”

She said she was pleased with how the auction went, adding: “I am delighted that so many people chose to buy something of Paul’s. It has been an emotional and inspiring couple of days passing on his legacy.”