This maneuver was described in Downs and Hilliard's The Art of Magic, 1909, p. 118, in the context of a Card up the Sleeve routine.
It was described again by Konnor in the context of a rising card from deck, in which the thumb pushes up the top card of the deck. This was published in Floyd Thayer's The Magical Bulletin, Vol. 6 No. 3, Mar. 1918, n.p., under the title “A Neat Card Move.” (This is reprinted in The Fine Print, No. 7, 1998, p. 195.) It is also used in “Carlyle's Card” in The Phoenix, No. 48, Nov. 19 1943, p. 196.