Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Cards Up the Sleeve or to the Pocket

The genesis of the effect of passing cards magically up the sleeve, into the vest or a pocket, singly and in batches, was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin's “The Cards Passing Up the Sleeve”, published in Les Secrets de la magie et de la prestidigitation, 1868, p. 88 of the Hoffmann 1878 translation. Two other early treatments are “The Traveling Cards” in Edwin T. Sachs's Sleight of Hand, 2nd enlarged ed., 1895, p. 135; p. 127 of the popular Fleming edition, and S. W. Erdnase's The Expert at the Card Table, 1902, p. 185.

See: Fifty-one Cards to Pocket.