During one of his engagements at the Bartholomew Fair, Pinchbeck
probably met Fawkes, the cleverest sleight-of-hand performer that magic
has ever known, and the two joined forces. Pinchbeck made all the
automata and apparatus thereafter used by Fawkes, and, in Fawkes, he
had a master-producer of his tricks. Christopher Pinchbeck never
appeared on the program used by Fawkes, save as the maker of the
automata or apparatus, but directly after the death of the elder Fawkes,
and a few months before his own, the elder Pinchbeck appeared with the
son of his deceased partner, and was advertised as doing "the Dexterity
of Hand" performance. This indicates that he was inducting young Fawkes
into all the mysteries of the profession at which the two elder men, as
friends and business partners, had done so well.
Christopher Pinchbeck was survived by two sons, Edward and Christopher,
Jr. Edward, the elder, succeeded to his father's shop and regular
business. He was born about 1703, and was well along in years when he
entered into his patrimony, which he advertised in _The Daily Post_ of
November 27th, 1732, as follows: "The toys made of the late Mr.
Pinchbeck's curious metal are now sold only by his son and sole
executor, Mr. Edward Pinchbeck."
This announcement settles forever the oft-disputed question as to
whether the alloy of copper and zinc which bears the name of Pinchbeck
was invented by Christopher Pinchbeck, Sr., or by his son Christopher,
Jr.
All newspaper and magazine descriptions of the automata invented by the
elder Pinchbeck indicate that his hand was as cunning as his brain was
inventive, for they showed the most delicate mechanism, and included
entire landscapes with figures of rare grace in motion.
[Illustration: The best portrait of Isaac Fawkes in existence. The
original, now in the Harry Houdini Collection, is supposed to have been
engraved by Sutton Nichols. It is said that there is only one more of
these engravings extant.]
"Christopher, the second son of Christopher Pinchbeck the elder,"
continues the biographical sketch, "was born about 1710 and possessed
great mechanical ingenuity. While the elder son, Edward, was made
executor and continued his father's trade in a quiet, conservative
fashion, the younger son struck out along new lines and became even more
famous as an inventor than his brilliant father had been.
[Illustration: An early Fawkes advertisement, clipped from a London
paper of 1725. From the Harry Houdini Collection.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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