Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Card to Wallet

The method using a confederate, who is cued to misname the selection already pre-planted in the pocket was documented in W. Hooper's Rational Recreations Vol. 4, 1782, p. 251 of the second edition. This method was often repeated in print throughout the nineteenth century.

Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin later updated the handling to include a signed card, palm, and wallet load in “The Card in the Pocketbook” from Les Secrets de la Magie et de la Prestidigitation, 1868, p. 110 of the Hoffmann translation.

A method for loading the selection into an apparently sealed envelope inside a wallet that is tied shut is given by Henry Hatton and Adrian Plate in Magicians' Tricks: How They Are Done, 1910, “Card in the Pocketbook, p. 64. This method is the forefather of Ed Balducci's popular “Card in Wallet”, published in Hugard's Magic Monthly, Vol. 15 No. 11, Apr. 1958, p. 121. And these methods have since been varied and nuanced countless times.