The earliest discovered description of this sleight is by Carl Willmann, who explained it in the context of a card-matching effect titled “Grand clairvoyance mystèrieuse” in his magazine Zauberwelt, Vol. 1 No. 4, Apr. 1895, pp. 60-61. Willmann gave three methods, two of which used a Mexican Turnover. The next year, F. W. Conradi-Horster described the move in Der Moderne Kartenkünstler, 1896, p. 16, and claimed the sleight originated in America. His source for this information may have been August Roterberg, who the next year included the sleight in New Era Card Tricks, 1897, p. 22. Evidence showing Roterberg's knowledge of Willmann's article is found in his use of the same title, “Grande Clairyoyance Mysterieuse” (p. 167), for three methods producing the same matching effect as Willmann's. The three methods Roterberg explains differ only in small details from Willmann's.
In the mid-1800s, Johann Hofzinser had a related move — now called the Wild Card Move — in a trick called “Thought” from Kartenkünste, 1910, p. 65 of the Sharpe translation.