Luxury Books on Savile Row, Vuitton, Extreme Golf, Zeffirelli

In March 1905, Georges Vuitton dared escape artist Harry Houdini to pit his skill against a handmade trunk bearing the Vuitton family name.

“Sir, I take the liberty of challenging you,” he wrote in a newspaper ad, “to get out of a BOX MADE BY ME, NAILED SHUT after you get in by MY STAFF, and tied with ropes.” Houdini doesn’t seem to have taken up the offer, aware, no doubt, that the LV brand stood for goods even tougher than he.