A Magical Mystery

Congratulations to John, Shinade, Grace, Joanne Olivieri and Jen for guessing with magical accuracy - this is indeed a magician's set, made in France in the 1850s. It is over at Martinka's Museum of Magic. I wrote a poem about a 1971 ad for this shop, also known as the Flosso Hornmann Magic Co., in this post. A far more edifying post on the shop is here at The Bowery Boys.

Several pieces in this set were made of tin (cups and balls, which seem not to have survived). The ones in the picture are mostly made of boxwood, which is one of the few woods denser than water, and is often used to make chess pieces (which these resemble a little).

The upper right hand corner piece (with reddish wooden egg sitting just to the left of it) was, according to Martinka, a trick which enabled one to give the illusion of having magically inserted a playing card into a real egg. Here is how the trick, called The Hatched Card, can be done; another version, called Egg à la Card, is here in John Scarne's Scarne on Card Tricks (2003).

The red and blue item just above the wand at the bottom is a Scotch Purse, a trick purse that one put coins into that seemingly then disappeared, though one's audience could still feel the coins inside. This picture at left is the closest modern equivalent of the Scotch Purse that Icould find to show you. It is available at Wonder Workshops.

Apparently, a "bonus genus doll" is missing from the set. This was used in a trick called "Bonus Genus" or "The Little Messenger." One used a trick coin, a small wooden doll and a miniature cape that fitted over the doll to perform this trick. The magician made the doll disappear, provided with invisible money, to some fantastic place to have adventures (this was often done for children). A complete explanation of how this trick was done is discussed in Paul Curry's Magician's Magic (2003, pp 20-25), Curry notes that it was a favorite of Charles Dickens, who was an enthusiastic amateur magician - and who might just have owned a set such as the one pictured above. The illustration at right is from this book, p. 24.

Thank you to all who guessed this week:

John at English Wilderness
Robin Egg's Bleu
Daisy the Curly Cat
Shinade at The Painted Veil
Grace at Hugz Before You Go
Debbi at Debbi's Random Thoughts
Jayne at Our Great Southern Land
Life In Scribbletown
Brett Payne at The Photo Sleuth
Wendy at November Obscura
Pam Walter at Satisfied Sole
Catherine at Sharp Words
Relax Max at Clarity 2009
Alison at EleanorBlog
Susanne Saville at Caffeinated Natter 
Joanne Olivieri at Poetic Shutterbug
Jen at Redhead Ranting