'Professor' John Henry Anderson (1814-1874), the Scottish magician and theatrical entrepreneur better known as 'the Wizard of the North', was the showman and philanthropist regarded as the first magician to raise Magic from street performance to a respectable theatrical event through his flair for publicity and his expertise with astonishing illusions including the bullet-catching act. He is seen here with Louie Anderson, one of his two daughters who assisted with his act and became magicians themselves. Anderson began performing magic aged seventeen and started a travelling show in 1837, aged twenty-three. He settled in London in 1840 where he performed at the New Strand Theatre and in August 1845 opened his own 5,000-seat theatre the City Theatre on Glasgow Green, for which from 8th to 19th September 1845 he engaged an operatic company headed by the well-known tenor Sims Reeves. The theatre burned down in November 1845, only four months after its opening, but through the assistance of friends Anderson started a new London company at Covent Garden Theatre in 1846 and went on to perform around Europe, and in 1849 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Photography was a novel and exciting development in Victorian days. Most actors and actresses had studio photographs taken, in everyday dress or theatrical costume, for ‘cartes de visite’, and later ‘cabinet cards’. Both were albumen prints made from glass negatives, attached to stiff card backing printed with the photographer’s name. ‘Cartes de visite’, the size of formal visiting cards, were patented in 1854 and produced in their millions during the 1860s when it became fashionable to collect them. Their subjects included scenic views, tourist attractions and works of art, as well as portraits. They were superseded in the late 1870s by the larger and sturdier ‘cabinet cards’ whose popularity waned in turn during the 1890s in favour of postcards and studio portraits.

This photograph comes from a large collection of ‘cartes de visite’ and ‘cabinet cards’ removed from their backings and mounted in albums by Guy Tristram Little (d.1953) who bequeathed them to the V&A. A collector of greetings cards, games and photographs, Guy Little was a partner in the legal firm Messrs Milles Jennings White & Foster, and the solicitor and executor of Mrs. Gabrielle Enthoven, whose theatrical collection formed the basis of the Theatre Collections at the V&A.