The Art of Magic

The King of Koins on sleight of hand. Card and coin technique, routines and stagecraft from one of the great vaudeville manipulators, edited by John Northern Hilliard.

What’s inside

1. Flourishes and fancy sleights with cards — the card fan, springing the cards, throwing cards, cards from the mouth
2. Card tricks with unprepared cards, not requiring sleight of hand — card discoveries, the reversed card, the piano trick
3. Card tricks involving sleight of hand — Everywhere and Nowhere, the general card, the flying card
4. Sleight of hand with cards (part 2) — the Princess card trick, the Siamese aces, torn card tricks
5. Sleight of hand with cards (part 3) — cards up the sleeve, the stabbed card, poker tricks
6. Card tricks based on a new system of locating a chosen card — card through the handkerchief, the card in the watch
7. Clairvoyance with cards — the ubiquitous cards and card-reading effects
8. A series of card tricks based on a new and original system — mind-reading with cards, divination, prophecy
9. The rising cards — De Kolta’s and Thurston’s rising cards, the swinging houlette
10. Card tricks with apparatus and other objects — card, orange and candle; the card in the frame
11. Fancy flourishes with coins and additions to the Miser’s Dream — coin passes, the coin roll, Downs’ Miser’s Dream
12. Coin tricks with and without apparatus — sympathetic coins, the trained half dollar, the coin wand
13. A coin act and a coin ladder
14. Tricks of the trade
15. Tricks with eggs — the Japanese egg trick, egg, handkerchief and glass
16. Tricks with balls — the four-ball trick, colour change, the travelling balls
17. Miscellaneous tricks — torn bank note, rope ties, the giant memory, the trance vision

T. Nelson Downs, 1909 · The Downs-Edwards Company. Complete 364-page PDF. Free to download: check out at $0 and the file arrives by email and on your order page.

This classic is in the public domain. Scans come from library copies, so expect the odd stain or stamp of an old book.