This sleight appeared in Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin's Secrets of Conjuring and Magic, 1868, p.249, under the title “A Magical Transformation.”

However, an earlier form of this change appeared in an anonymous notebook circa 1800. Will Houstoun transcribed the book and published it as The Notebook, 2009, p. 61. The change is used in the context of a transposition effect. Two cards held back to back are waved in the air while being secretly “dexterously” turned around. The description may mean the double card is simply turned over under cover of the waving, but the usual snap-over action may not be entirely discounted, given the vague explanation. A similar form of this change appeared in The Conjurer's Repository, 1803, p. 1034.