The marvellous little shop does not appear again on programmes of magic
until 1815, when Garnerin features it as "The Dutch Coffee-House." On
the programme used by Garnerin in that year for a benefit which he gave
for the General Hospital at Birmingham, England, it is featured as No.
10: "A Dutch Coffee-House, a very surprising mechanical piece, in which
there is the figure of a Girl, six inches high, which presents, at the
Command of the Spectators, ten different sorts of Liquors."
[Illustration: A Garnerin poster of 1815, advertising "A Dutch Coffee
House," whose automatic hostess serves refreshments at command. From the
Harry Houdini Collection.]
This programme is of such historical value that I reproduce it in full.
It will show that this particular mechanical trick is by no means the
most important feature of Garnerin's répertoire. In fact his fame is
based on his ballooning, and he is said to have been the inventor of
the parachute. The ascension of the nocturnal balloon, also scheduled on
this programme, is an imitation of the one which Garnerin arranged in
honor of Bonaparte's coronation in 1805. On that occasion the balloon
started at Paris and descended in Rome, a distance of five hundred miles
which was covered in twenty-two hours.
Garnerin was a contemporary of both Pinetti and Robertson and was with
them in Russia when Pinetti dissipated his fortune in balloon
experiments. In their correspondence, both Pinetti and Robertson spoke
slightingly of Garnerin, but the Frenchman's programmes all indicate
that he was not only a successful aëronaut, but a magician who could
present a diverting entertainment.
[Illustration: A Gyngell poster of 1816, featuring the Russian Inn, with
service of various kinds of liquor. From the Harry Houdini Collection.]
In 1816 the elder Gyngell featured the trick on his programmes as "The
Russian Inn," and in 1823 he changed it to "The Confectioner's Shop."
These programmes are reproduced as the most convincing evidence against
the claims of Robert-Houdin.
The Gyngell family is one of the most interesting in the history of
magic. The Christian name of the founder of the family I have never been
able to ascertain, though programmes give the initial as G. He was
celebrated as a Bartholomew Fair conjurer. His career started about
1788, and his contemporaries were Lane, Boaz, Ball, Jonas, Breslaw, and
Flocton. At one time Gyngell and Flocton worked together, and Thomas
Frost in his book, "The Lives of Conjurers," claims that at Flocton's
death Gyngell received a portion of the former's wealth.
[Illustration: The original Gyngell, a portrait reproduced from the book
on magic written by this famous Bartholomew Fair conjurer. From the
Harry Houdini Collection.]
Associated with him in his performances were his brother, two sons, and
a daughter. The latter was not only a clever rope-dancer but a musician
of more than ordinary ability and she often constituted the entire
"orchestra."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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