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The Art of Magic
by Thomas Nelson Downs

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The Art of Magic by Thomas Nelson Downs

The collaboration of T. Nelson Downs and John Northern Hilliard produced this wonderful book. Downs was the first to introduce an act with small objects onto the vaudeville stage. He was most famous for his coin manipulation, and in particular for his version of the "Miser's Dream". The Art of Magic covers sleights with cards, coins, and balls, and teaches many tricks and routines with detailed explanations from the master.

The card section in this book was epoch making. It features the first appearance in print of the side steal. Based on the number of pages dealing with card magic this is more a card book than anything else.

Overall a very thorough introduction to magic. Another excellent book by T. Nelson Downs is Modern Coin Manipulation.

This book was rated one of the ten basic books for a working library of conjuring by H. Adrian Smith, historian, collector and owner of the largest private magic library in his time. Other books in this top 10 list are:

1st edition, 1909, Downs-Edwards Company, New York; 2nd edition, 1921; 1980 reprinted by Dover Publications, New York; 348 pages.


    CHAPTER I.
    FLOURISHES AND FANCY SLEIGHTS WITH CARDS.
  1. The Card Fan
  2. Card Balancing
  3. To Tear a Pack of Cards
  4. The Fan and Ruffle
  5. The Downs Fan
  6. Springing the Cards
  7. Second Method
  8. Third Method
  9. The One-Hand Drop
  10. Second Method
  11. The Cards on the Arm
  12. A Series of Fancy Flourishes
  13. The Flower of Cards
  14. Throwing Cards
  15. Cards from the Mouth
    CHAPTER II.
    CARD TRICKS WITH UNPREPARED CARDS AND NOT REQUIRING SLEIGHT OF HAND.
  16. Novel Card Discovery
  17. Second Method
  18. Third Method
  19. Fourth Method
  20. New Methods of Concluding Card Tricks
  21. Second Method
  22. Third Method
  23. The Reversed Card
  24. The Piano Trick
  25. The Transposed Cards
    CHAPTER III.
    CARD TRICKS INVOLVING SLEIGHT OF HAND.
  26. The Transfixed Pack
  27. Second Method
  28. Everywhere and Nowhere
  29. Everywhere and Nowhere; new method
  30. The General Card; T. Nelson Downs' Method
  31. The Flying Card
    CHAPTER IV.
    SLEIGHT OF HAND WITH CARDS (continued).
  32. The Princess Card Trick
  33. Second Method
  34. The Prince's Card Trick
  35. The Twenty Card Trick
  36. A Comedy of Errors
  37. The Siamese Aces
  38. The Card in the Pocket
  39. Houdini's Torn Card Trick
  40. Barrington's Torn Card Trick
  41. A Card Discovered by Sense of Touch
  42. The Flying Cards
  43. Second Method
    CHAPTER V.
    SLEIGHT OF HAND WITH CARDS (continued).
  44. The Cards up the Sleeve
  45. Second Method
  46. The Dissolved Card
  47. The Mysterious Card
  48. The Card and Hat
  49. The Stabbed Card
  50. The Great Poker Trick
  51. Another Poker Trick
  52. The Disappearing Queen
  53. The Card Through the Handkerchief
  54. The Card in the Watch
  55. Second Method
    CHAPTER VI.
    CARD TRICKS BASED ON A NEW AND ORIGINAL SYSTEM OF LOCATING A CHOSEN CARD.
  56. Chosen Card Appears in Any Part of the Deck
  57. Second Method
  58. Third Method
  59. Fourth Method
  60. Fifth Method
  61. Sixth Method
  62. The Ubiquitious Cards
  63. Second Method
    CHAPTER VII.
    CLAIRVOYANCE WITH CARDS.
  64. First Method
  65. Second Method
  66. Third Method
    CHAPTER VIII.
    A SERIES OF CARD TRICKS BASED ON A NEW AND ORIGINAL SYSTEM.
  67. The Irregularities of Scroll Designed Cards
  68. Mind-reading with Cards
  69. Divination Extraordinary
  70. The Transfixed Card
  71. The Magician's Will Power
  72. Prophecy Down-to-Date
    CHAPTER IX.
    THE RISING CARDS.
  73. The Tattlings of Toto
  74. DeKolta's Rising Cards
  75. DeKolta's New Rising Cards
  76. The Rising Cards in Swinging Houlette
  77. The Thurston Rising Cards
  78. Resurrection of the Cards
    CHAPTER X.
    THE FOUR ACE TRICK.
  79. First Method
  80. Second Method
  81. Third Method
  82. Fourth Method
  83. Fifth Method
  84. Sixth Method
  85. Seventh Method
    CHAPTER XI.
    CARD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS AND IN COMBINATION WITH OTHER OBJECTS.
  86. Card, Orange and Candle
  87. The Card in the Frame
  88. The Valladon Cards on Glass
    CHAPTER XII.
    FANCY FLOURISHES WITH COINS, USEFUL SLEIGHTS AND ADDITIONS TO THE MISER'S DREAM.
  89. An Illusive Coin Pass
  90. The Hilliard Pass
  91. The Coin Roll
  92. The Coin Through the Knee
  93. The Traveling Coin
  94. Down's Latest Method for "The Miser's Dream"
    CHAPTER XIII.
    COIN TRICKS WITH AND WITHOUT APPARATUS.
  95. The Sympathetic Coins
  96. The Coin Through the Hat
  97. The Expansion of Texture
  98. The Bewitched Nickel
  99. The Disappearing Dollars
  100. The Free and Unlimited Coinage of Silver
  101. Coin, Glass and Cone
  102. The Trained Half-Dollar
  103. The New Flying Coin
  104. The Coin Through the Hat
  105. The Transmutation of Metal
  106. Subtraction of Money
  107. Every Man His Own Mint
  108. New Coin Catching
  109. A New Coin Combination
  110. The Downs Coin Wand
  111. The New Coin Wand
  112. A New Coin Spider
    CHAPTER XIV.
    A COIN ACT AND A COIN LADDER.
  113. A Coin Act and a Coin Ladder
  114. The Coin Easel
    CHAPTER XV.
    TRICKS OF THE TRADE.
  115. Tricks of the Trade
    CHAPTER XVI.
    TRICKS WITH EGGS.
  116. To Balance an Egg on a Table
  117. Egg Changed into Confetti
  118. A New Idea in the Vanishing of an Egg
  119. The Eggs from the Mouth
  120. The Conjurer as Chicken Fancier
  121. Japanese Egg Trick
  122. The Latest Egg, Handkerchief and Glass Trick
  123. "Eggsample"
    CHAPTER XVII.
    TRICKS WITH BALLS.
  124. The Four-Ball Trick, with Novel Passes
  125. Passing Four Solid Balls from Hand to Hand
  126. Color Change with Four Solid Balls
  127. The Traveling Balls
    CHAPTER XVIII.
    MISCELLANEOUS TRICKS.
  128. The Four Paper Balls and Plates
  129. The Flying Salt
  130. The Cigarette Paper Trick
  131. The Torn Bank Note
  132. The Bill and Lemon Trick
  133. The Ring on the Wand
  134. The Mysterious Match
  135. The Inexhaustible Hat
  136. The Mysterious Knot
  137. The Vanishing Knot
  138. The Mystic Tie
  139. The Jacoby Rope Tie
  140. The Rope Tie par excellence
  141. Escape from a Paper Cylinder
  142. The Giant Memory
  143. The Trance Vision
  144. Second Method
  145. The Quick or the Dead
  146. Don'ts
  147. L'Envoi

word count: 118529 which is equivalent to 474 standard pages of text


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Magic & Conjuring

Magic & Conjuring / Cards