(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 14 Aug 1735 - 1795)
Stage name of Jacob Meyer aka "Meyer", son of Jewish immigrants from Polish Galicia. Learned c1750 by tuition from Dr Christopher Witt, a Rosicrucian occultist.
Moved to England around mid-1750s. After 1765, became the first American magician to perform in Europe. Pro illusionist and sleight-of-hand artist. Toured England (c1765), Ireland, Portugal (1765?), Spain, Russia, Romania (? & 1772), Turkey, Sweden, Prussia, Vienna (1774), Lüneburg, Weimar (1777), Göttingen (1777), Strasbourg (1779), and Switzerland. When not on tour, lived with his wife and two children in Köthen by 1783 until last reported there in 1797.
Wrote Kleines Traktätlein seltsamer und approbirte Kunststücke [Little Treatise on Strange and Appropriate Feats] (Vienna: 1774). This 72-page book is the earliest published work on magic by an American-born conjuror. The only known copy is in the Christopher Collection.
