A LATE NINETEENTH TO EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY CARVED WOOD ADJUSTABLE MALE HEAD, carved with slicked back hair, bearing traces of paint, with a fabric bow tie and shoulders, on cylindrical wood support.

60cm high x 37cm wide x 20cm deep

Notes: The owner purchased the head with a story that it was used by Harry Houdini in his disappearing acts, though there is no provenance to confirm that, and it may be a mannequin head.

The owner wrote a note about the head:

I am an artist, and during the 70s & 80s, I collected and used heads to use as references for people I know in my paintings.

My friend from America, Eleanor Hickok (supposedly Wild Bill Hickok's great great granddaughter), and I found this head in a local junk shop. It was my favourite head of all my collection; always on display in my house! The children didn't like him and were frightened of him. He was purported to be a portrait of Houdini and appear in place of his own head in his disappearing acts. You can still see the remnants of stage blue and pink makeup on his face. Obviously, he had hair on his rigged scalp. I love his bow tie.

I would love it if you could restore him to his original "human" condition so that we could see him as he really was and sit in my house as a guest as before, and Eleanor's memory could be preserved.