Who was P. T. Selbit?

P. T. Selbit (1881–1938) was the stage name of Percy Thomas Tibbles, a London magician, illusion builder and writer. In January 1921 at the Finsbury Park Empire in London he presented sawing through a woman, the illusion his name is tied to. He also edited the magic magazine The Wizard, wrote several books on conjuring and staged a séance in 1919 that fooled Arthur Conan Doyle.

This post is about the magician whose name is tied to sawing through a woman. It sticks to what at least two of our sources agree on.

Who was P. T. Selbit?

He was born Percy Thomas Tibbles in London on 17 November 1881. He made his stage name by spelling his surname backwards and dropping one “b”. As a young man he was apprenticed to a silversmith whose basement was rented by a magician, and that is where his interest in magic took hold.

From 1902 to 1908 he worked the music halls in a “pseudo-Egyptian” character called Joad Heteb.

What did Selbit write?

He was a writer and editor as well as a performer. He edited The Wizard, a magic magazine, from 1905 to 1910; under a later editor it became The Magic Wand. His books include The Magician’s Handbook (1901), The Magical Entertainer (1906) and Conjuring Patter (1907).

What were his illusions before the sawing?

Selbit had a talent for odd, attention-grabbing ideas. In his “spirit paintings”, pictures in the style of a named artist appeared on blank canvases. In “the Mighty Cheese”, audience members tried and failed to tip over a huge model cheese wheel, which held a hidden gyroscope. He also presented a walking-through-a-wall illusion in London around 1913–1914.

In 1919 he staged a séance that Arthur Conan Doyle attended. Doyle didn’t spot the trickery and took the effects as genuine.

When did Selbit first saw through a woman?

He presented sawing through a woman at the Finsbury Park Empire in London in January 1921. Two of our sources give the date as 17 January 1921; another gives 7 January. A woman was tied inside a box about the size of a coffin, the box was sawn through, and she climbed out unharmed.

Wikipedia describes Selbit as “generally recognised as the first magician to perform such a trick on a public stage.” Based on our research, the earliest public stage performance we’ve found is Selbit’s, in 1921. Two of our sources add that Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin had described or sketched a similar idea decades earlier.

What happened with Horace Goldin?

Within months, the American illusionist Horace Goldin was presenting his own version, in which the audience could see the assistant’s head and feet the whole time. The two versions led to a legal dispute, but our sources disagree on who brought it and who won, so we don’t state an outcome here.

What came after?

Selbit kept building new versions of the same theme. Our sources list “Stretching a Girl”, “the Girl without a Middle” (1924) and “Through the Eye of a Needle” (1924) among his later illusions. He died on 19 November 1938, two days after his 57th birthday.

Why does Selbit matter today?

Sawing through a woman is still widely recognised, and Selbit is the name at the start of its stage history. His career also shows how much of a stage illusion’s success came from showmanship and publicity, not just the method.

What helps you take it further?

• The Secrets of Stage Conjuring by Robert-Houdin, translated by Professor Hoffmann (1881), is a free 263-page PDF on the methods behind his stage illusions, including the talking-head illusion and the Protean cabinet.
• Our Magic by Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant (1911) is a free 512-page PDF on the art, theory and practice of magic from the London stage of Selbit’s day.

Browse our stage and large audience collection, and read about David Devant, John Nevil Maskelyne and Harry Houdini.

Frequently asked questions