Houdini's "King of Cards" Deck Sells for $43K at Goldin

Before Houdini was dangling upside down from skyscrapers or getting locked in water tanks, he was doing card tricks. The 1890 date is significant because that’s the exact year Ehrich Weiss adopted the stage name Harry Houdini and started building what would become the most famous magic career in history. This deck represents the absolute beginning of that journey.

What makes this deck special isn’t just that Houdini owned it, but the unbroken and authenticated chain of custody through magic royalty. After Houdini died in 1926, his wife Bess passed the deck to magician Audley S. Dunham. Dunham later gifted it to J. Elder Blackledge, a magician who performed at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

After Blackledge’s death in 1961, the cards went to William B.F. Hall, another magician. When Hall died in 1968, they landed with Lawrence L. Michaelis, a retired cardiothoracic surgeon who’s been doing magic for over 75 years. Michaelis consigned the deck to Goldin, complete with documentation proving every step of this journey.

A signed note from Blackledge accompanied the deck: “This deck was one of the first used by Houdini (about 1890). Mrs. Houdini gave it to Audley S. Dunham who gave it to me Dec. 14, 1943.”

This deck was listed for auction through Goldin early this month, and gaveled for an eye-popping $43,410. It consisted of just 46 cards (missing an Ace, Queen, 10, 9, 6, 5, 4, and 3), meaning the winner paid nearly $1,000 per card with the buyer’s premium.

Playing cards attributed to Houdini almost never come up for sale, which explains why bidding more than doubled from the opening price. For collectors of magic memorabilia, this represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to own something from Houdini’s “King of Cards” era before he became the escape artist legend.

Other recent Houdini sales show the market strength. An automatic flowering rosebush created for his final 1926 American tour sold for a record $324,000 in 2022. A straitjacket he used around 1915 brought over $30,000 in 2011. Signed photographs, handcuffs, and props from his escape acts regularly sell for five figures when they surface.

This week’s sale reinforces what high-end collectible auctions have shown all year: provenance matters more than ever. Items with documented ownership history and authentication consistently outperform similar pieces without that paper trail. The magic community takes provenance seriously, and this deck’s journey through four generations of magicians added significant value beyond just Houdini’s name.

For collectors watching the magic memorabilia space, Houdini remains the blue-chip investment. His items appreciate steadily, rarely come to market, and attract bidders worldwide. This deck won’t be the last Houdini piece to surprise at auction, but opportunities like this are few and far between.