This effect appeared in Edmé-Gilles Guyot's Nouvelles recreations physiques et mathematiques (1740), under the translated title of “To tell the cards by weight.”

It appeared again, made possible by a wide card in the deck, in Ein Spiel Karten by R. P., Prague, 1853, Part I, item 8, p. 30 of the Pieper translation, under the title of “The Scales.”