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 John Gale's Cabinet of Knowledge, 1796, p. 81. Around the same time, the same technique was detailed in an anonymous notebook written c. 1800. Will Houstoun transcribed the manuscript and published it as The Notebook, 2009. 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 in Les Secrets de la Magie et de la Prestidigitation, 1868, p. 110 of the Hoffmann translation.