London magic dealer W. H. M. Crambrook was listing this comedy prop in his Crambrook's Catalogue of Magical Curiosities and Deceptions, 1843, p. 11. It was also described in Japanese books and prints in the late Edo Period (the early-to-mid 1800s) and is believed to have originated in China; see Masaru Kawai and Eishun Nagano's Cultural History of Japanese Magic, 2016, p. 324.