Abbott’s Challenge Dove Vanish: art deco 1930’s Rare

Doing this as long as I have I rarely get super excited over a prop.  It is a great feeling when I do!  This is one of those times.  This is an Abbott challenge dove vanish. It is about 80 years old.  I cannot believe how it looks.  Everything is there right down to the original instructions, fake doves and yes even the original lock release pin for the vanish cabinet.  It is in incredible condition for its age.  To find one of these is a treat (never owned one before) but to find this era in this condition: wow!

If you don’t know the effect, two live doves are in a open cage. The doves are removed from the cage and placed into a smaller box. A spectator is then invited to come up to the box and take it apart and examine every piece. The doves have vanished!

If functions perfectly. The bottom of the vanish box is missing some paint. I would suggest leaving it alone since you are basically going to display this but if you want to it can be repainted or preferably put black felt on it.  The fake doves could use some new feathers. There are holes in the bottom of the doves placed there to hold the feathers.

The size is 14.5×16.5×13 for the dove cage and 16.5x12x8.5 for the vanish box.  This currently sells for $900 from Abbot (yes they still make them but not like this!)

Estimate $600-800