HELLER, Robert (William Henry Palmer, 1826 – 78). Robert Heller and the Harlequin. Circa 1870. Sepia tone full-length albumen photograph of the famed conjuror, humorist, and pianist presenting a pseudo-automaton in the form of a miniature harlequin, jumping from a wooden chest atop a table. Plain mount, trimmed to 5 ⅞ x 4 ¼”. Faint evidence of mounting to verso, else very good. Rare. Trained as a musician, Heller all but left behind his education to follow in the footsteps of Robert-Houdin, his idol – but with a notable difference. Heller found fame and fortune (some regarded him as the best conjuror of his generation) by combining his skills as a raconteur with magic and music, making him perhaps the first “comedy” magician. The London Times of June 8, 1868 reported Heller’s “discourse abounds in jokes, good, bad, and indifferent, all provocative of laughter, but all free from any accompaniment of laughter on the part of the joker as those of the late Artemus Ward, whom Mr. Heller seems to have taken for his model.” Never afraid to use his name for advertising purposes, he frequently used this rhyme (written by his manager) to attract attention: Shakespeare wrote well; Dickens wrote Weller; Anderson was ---- But the greatest is Heller.