Featuring a central image of Florence Vidor surrounded by purple orchids, as befitting her billing by Paramount Pictures as “The Lovely Orchid Lady of the Screen,” this watercolor on board painting surrounds the silent film star with vignettes that show moments from a proposed (never completed) silent film which was to be titled “Love–The Magician.”

This was created for an exhibitor’s book produced by Paramount, which was distributed to encourage theater owners across the country to commit to screening films by the production company in the upcoming year. Because of the tight production schedules for silent films, and the long lead to book theaters, there would often be films which never got produced advertised in these books, which were really more about advertising the stars than particular films. Along with Cardwell Higgins, who created this example, Alberto Vargas and Henry Clive’s works appeared in the Paramount Exhibitor’s Books of the day. A tear sheet from the published exhibitor book of the artwork is included in the sale.