Hello,
I just arrived home from an exhausting trip to NY, NJ, and Penn. I went with Mark Lundblad, and we stayed with Fred Pittella.
We visited many collections during our 6 day stay, and Stanley Palm joined us for all of it. I'll be posting photos as soon as I
get caught up. We had the honor and privelege to visit Bill Kalush's collection (we examined the Guiteau handcuff he has). We also
saw Rory Feldmans Howard Thurston collection, George Daily's collection (one of the best Houdini collections I've ever seen,
and Fred's collection (best escape artist collection in my opinion). We saw the Police Museum which has some very nice handcuffs, The Mossman Lock collection (personal tour with open cases from curator John Erroll) which contains the history of safe and vault locks and includes the
items from the book Lure of the Lock was a highlight for us all. We visited Houdini's brownstone home, Tannens and Fantasma magic shops, etc... etc... We slept little, and had endless fun including some interesting discussions on variants vs. duplicates, whether or not we like Thurston (inside joke), and overall had a great time. We also visited Joe Lauher's handcuff collection again, and saw so much material it staggers the mind.
My personal thanks go to Fred Pittella, Stanley Palm, George Daily, Bill Kaloosh, Mark Mitton, John Erroll, Rory Feldman, Roger Dreyer, and
many others we met and had the chance to visit. I acquired a few pieces for my own collection. Anyway, more later, look for the photos soon.
John Bushey

PS--I am now able to confirm that there are actually 5 Romer handcuffs/leg irons, and not 4 as many of us thought. There is a small handcuff,
large handcuff (bodies the same size, bows different), a small and large small-size leg iron (bodies nearly the same but bows different), and a
large leg iron. I'll post under another topic soon.

Great to hear that you guys had a fantastic trip. Can't wait to see to some photos!

Here is a sampling of photos of our trip. Many more to come. john

Nothing great, just a few cuffs we saw.


One rare Houdini Poster - 3 Sheet



Another 3 sheet Poster



Stanley Sokeitous Handcuff Board



One wall of a Houdini collector



Salesman Sample Safe door - This is about 10 inches high




Front of safe door

Hi John, wow! what a great set of photos. Love the handcuff photo and what they heck is the story of the bean giant bottom (left corner) fat bows and frame?

Ian

WOW!!! Great pictures of amazing collections. Thanks John and the owners of these great items to let us enjoy them too.

Ron

Well John, you must have been like a kid in a sweet shop! My mouth was watering just looking at thosae great pics. I thought I had seen all the Houdini posters, but then up pops another! I hope there are more pictures.

Regardingt those "fat" Bean Giants that Ian mentioned, could they be a non-working casting, as I can't seem to see any break in the metal where the bow hinge should be?

The Bean Giants are a non-working casting made by Trudel. It's one piece Freddy Pittella is really looking for.
If ANYONE out there has one, please help fred by selling it to them. They are not a valuable piece, but woule help
Fred complete his Trudel collection, which by the way is simply unbelieveable! Perhaps the owner of this one might
someday consider selling it to Fred. Fred is working on a lecture and possible book on Trudel. It's a nice piece.
More photos later. The most incredible safe locks I've ever seen, real masterpieces, are located in the Mossman
collection which is where the little safe door is. By the way Ian, can you make me one of those doors? haha.
John

Here are a few more pictures. Enjoy. The Mossman lock collection, from Lure of the Lock, is mind-blowing. Even Stanley Palm and magician
Mark Mitton loved it, and they are more into Houdini and history than locks. John Erroll, the curator, with his personal tour, made the
experience fantastic. Other collections we saw were so extensive and complete, and so beautifully displayed and cared for, that it made
all of us envious. I'm not naming whose collections the photos come from to protect their privacy, but we can still enjoy the pieces.
John


A few locks from the Mossman collection. This collection contains the history
of save and Vault locks and contains locks from the early days of Egypt to about 1915.




Fred Pittella and Stanley Palm perusing the new George Goebel book.
All three of us intend to get a copy as soon as possible. The library is
filled with rare magic books, including the 1584 1st ed. of Scot's Discovery
of Witchcraft, and countless other early volumes, as well as many Houdini books.






A fabulous and precision-machined masterpiece safe lock in the Mossman collection.





Yet another super rare Houdini poster. This one is a one-sheet poster.




Beautiful!

One drawer full of plug 8's. This is only one of many, many drawers, tables,
display boards, and cabinets of cuffs we saw on the trip.





Houdini photo, inscribed beautifully. I have a copy
from the early 1900's of this inscribed photo. It was amazing
to find the original. The Weed company had copies of the photo made
to give out to employees. I have one of those copies; Not the original, but nice.