Chung Ling Soo — The Marvellous Chinese Conjuror
From Henry Ridgely Evans, "The Old and the New Magic"
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, 58 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyThe publicity likeness of the era’s most famous “Chinese” conjuror — silk, queue, and painted serenity. The man beneath the costume was William Robinson of New York, who performed his whole career in yellowface.
- Maker
- From Henry Ridgely Evans, "The Old and the New Magic"
- Medium of the original
- Colour lithograph poster
- Original held by
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- William Ellsworth Robinson as Chung Ling Soo, from "The Old and the New Magic" (1906)
- Rights
- Cleared for print
- Catalogue number
- PA-02093
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | 58 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 8 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 11 x 14 in | 42 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 16 in | 38 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 18 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 16 x 20 in | 29 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 18 x 24 in | 25 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 24 x 30 in | 19 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 36 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 30 x 40 in | 15 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 12 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 470 x 621 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 34, lights 254 of 255; 8% clipped light, 0.1% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 60.95
- Notes
- Pure white on 8% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
- A plain margin is part of the file (4% of an edge): it prints as part of the picture
The Conjuror
The poster promised the impossible, and the printing delivered it.
All 54 pieces from The Conjuror
