Enthüllte Zauberkünste - Der redende Kopf thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Enthüllte Zauberkünste - Der redende Kopf

Trade Card
1894 (Printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is one of a set of beautifully illustrated chromolithographic trade cards produced in Antwerp by Liebig Company to advertise their meat extract products such as meat paste and stock cubes, invented by the German chemist Justus von Liebig (1803-1873). In partnership with the Belgian engineer George Christian Giebert Liebig's Extract of Meat Company started production of the extract in 1865 in Fray Bentos, Uruguay and Colón, Panama, and around 1870 started to publish series of coloured lithographic cards that continued until 1975 when they had published more than 11,000 different cards in sets of six or twelve.

This card is one of the Magic Revealed set produced in 1894. It illustrates and explains the Talking Head illusion of a man's head on a plate on a table talking to a magician and a clown, with an image (recto) of a side view of the man kneeling below the table, his torso concealed, and a written explanation of the trick (verso) titled Der redende Kopf.



Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleEnthüllte Zauberkünste - Der redende Kopf (published title)
Materials and techniques
Printing ink on card
Brief description
Trade card advertising Liebig's meat extract illustrated with the Talking Head illusion. Colour lithograph published by Liebig as part of its Magic Revealed set, Antwerp 1894
Physical description
Advertising trade card for the Liebig Company illustrated with an image of the Talking Head illusion, and in vignettes a pot of the meat extract and an image of the trick with its apparatus (recto), and printed in black and red ink (verso) with details of the product and a written explanation of the trick called Der redende Kopf, and a reproduction in blue ink of the signature of the product's inventor J. Liebig.
Dimensions
  • Height: 7.1cm (Note: maximum height)
  • Width: 11.1cm (Note: maximum width)
Object history
This is one of a series of trade cards printed by Liebig from around 1870 to 1875 to advertise their meat extract products, which later included Fray Bentos corned beef and the Oxo cube.
Association
Summary
This is one of a set of beautifully illustrated chromolithographic trade cards produced in Antwerp by Liebig Company to advertise their meat extract products such as meat paste and stock cubes, invented by the German chemist Justus von Liebig (1803-1873). In partnership with the Belgian engineer George Christian Giebert Liebig's Extract of Meat Company started production of the extract in 1865 in Fray Bentos, Uruguay and Colón, Panama, and around 1870 started to publish series of coloured lithographic cards that continued until 1975 when they had published more than 11,000 different cards in sets of six or twelve.

This card is one of the Magic Revealed set produced in 1894. It illustrates and explains the Talking Head illusion of a man's head on a plate on a table talking to a magician and a clown, with an image (recto) of a side view of the man kneeling below the table, his torso concealed, and a written explanation of the trick (verso) titled Der redende Kopf.

Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
S.564-2018

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Record createdOctober 22, 2018
Record URL
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