In Modern Magic (1876, p. 84), Prof. Hoffmann describes producing a selected card from beneath a seated spectator. The method involves producing the palmed selection as the spectator rises, as if the card had been under him, on his chair.

The earliest discovered description to date of getting a selected card beneath a seated spectator in advance of his standing up appears in The Ladies' Home Journal for Nov. 1907, p 27. A fine discussion of this effect, with refinements detailed, is Chuck Fayne's The Card on the Seat & Other Loads in Your Pants, 1994.