Joseph Bland was one of the earliest magic dealers in London, in a time when Cremer, Novla, Bell and Hamley where the sole manufactures and dealers of magical apparatus in the British capital.

Bland, an Italian whose real name was Giuseppe Bolasco, had started trading in magic in 1855 and opened his shop at 478 New Oxford Street sometimes before 1863. On October 19th 1863, Compars Hermann visited Bland’s shop and wrote him a letter congratulating on the quality of his apparatus.

Joseph Bland’s shop, seen here in a catalog, provided quality material for a number of amateurs and professionals alike in the last half of the 19th century and inspired H. G. Wells’ short story “The Magic Shop”.

One can assume Bland was providing tricks to Angelo Lewis, aka Prof. Hoffmann, as his books contained detailed information about tricks of the time, the same tricks J. Bland was selling in his catalogue.

During 1882-83, New Oxford Street went through a re-numbering, and Bland’s shop would be located at n. 35. Bland continued to sell tricks until the end of the century: with his death the shop passed into Hamley’s hands.

Special thanks to Marco Pusterla, The Ephemeral Collector, for his historical expertise.