A death-defying magical box. Handcuffs. A scrapbook kept by the magician himself. Eighty-eight years after Harry Houdini’s death, his mystery and legend persist…and are now for sale.

In 1974, a small classified ad in an issue of Magic Magazine allegedly offered up an unusual prop for sale. A wooden box, slightly larger than 2 feet by 3 feet, with a quadruple-padlocked lid that secured a removable, oversized milk can inside. Built in 1909 and dubbed the Double Fold Death Defying Water Mystery, it was designed for the world’s greatest escape artist, a man who could slip out of anything—straitjackets, beer barrels, coffins, even the most secure jails.

The magical box entered Houdini’s repertoire as a stepping stone between his milk can escape trick and his famously elaborate Water Torture Cell. In the early 1910s, the Double Fold Death Defying Water Mystery was the centerpiece of Harry Houdini’s world-renowned performances. He would fold himself into the milk can, which was filled with water by an assistant, and remain inside until the nerve-wracked audience was gasping for air, only to escape and emerge dripping wet, but unharmed.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/22/get-a-piece-of-houdini-before-he-disappears.html