The Art of Magic by T. Nelson Downs

Details: For the magician who has learned the basic sleights of cards and coins, and who wants to make his act both mystifying and entertaining, the undisputed all-time best guide is T. Nelson Downs’ The Art of Magic. Downs was one of the greatest sleight-of-hand performers who ever lived, and his name is associated with many of the most famous card and coin manipulations.

In this classic volume he’s compiled a selection of the finest tricks by other magicians, new methods of his own for many tricks, and several tricks that he invented. Beyond giving excellent instructions for all these tricks, Downs often includes complete transcriptions of appropriate patter-a vital part of many tricks that is often missing from other books of magic.

Approximately two-thirds of the book is devoted to tricks with cards:

• Everywhere and Nowhere (2 methods)
• Houdini’s Torn Card Trick
• The Flying Cards (2 methods)
• Cards Up the Sleeve (2 methods)
• The Card Through the Handkerchief
• The Rising Cards (6 versions)
• The Four Ace Trick (7 methods)
• and many others

The remainder of the book contains over 20 unbeatable coin tricks (one of Downs’ specialties), including the latest methods for the trick of which he was the supreme exponent-The Miser’s Dream, tricks with eggs, tricks with balls and miscellaneous tricks, including The Cigarette Paper Trick, The Torn Bank Note, The Vanishing Knot, and-the king of all rope ties and the most mysterious release ever invented-The Jacoby Rope Tie.

Many of the outstanding methods and sleights in The Art of Magic cannot be found in any other standard books. The Art of Magic can be recommended as an indispensable book for all intermediate and advanced magicians.

Contents  (from 1921 Felsman Edition):

11 The Art of Magic – Introductory: 1908

17 Chapter I: Flourishes and Fancy Sleights With Cards
19 The Card Fan
23 Card Balancing
24 To Tear a Pack of Cards
26 The Fan and Ruffle
27 The Downs Fan
28 Springing the Cards
30 Second Method
32 Third Method
32 The One-Hand Drop
33 Second Method
34 The Cards on the Arm
35 A Series of Fancy Flourishes
36 The Flower of Cards
37 Throwing Cards
38 Cards from the Mouth

40 Chapter II: Card Tricks with Unprepared Cards and Not Requiring Sleight of Hand
40 Novel Methods of Discovering a Chosen Card
40 – First Method
41 – Second Method
42 – Third Method
42 – Fourth Method
42 New Methods of Revealing a Chosen Card
43 – First Method
43 – Second Method
44 – Third Method
46 The Reversed Card
47 The Piano Trick
49 The Transposed Cards

52 Chapter III: Card Tricks Involving Sleight of Hand
52 The Transfixed Pack
55 Second Method
55 Everywhere and Nowhere
63 Everywhere and Nowhere – New Method
71 The General Card – T. Nelson Down’ Method
77 The Flying Card

80 Chapter IV: Sleight of Hand with Cards (continued)
80 The Princess Card Trick – First Method
82 – Second Method
84 The Princess Card Trick: simple method
85 The Twenty Card Trick
87 A Comedy of Errors
89 The Siamese Aces
92 The Card in the Pocket
94 Houdini’s Torn Card Trick
96 Barrington’s Torn Card Trick
98 A Card Discovered by Sense of Touch
99 The Flying Card – First Method
107 The Flying Cards – Second Method

111 Chapter V: Sleight of Hand with Cards (continued)
111 The Cards up the Sleeve – First Method
114 – Second Method
124 The Dissolved Card
126 The Mysterious Card
127 The Card and Hat
127 The Stabbed Card
128 The Great Poker Trick
130 Another Poker Trick
133 The Disappearing Queen
136 The Card Through the Handkerchief
140 The Card in the Watch – First Method
141 – Second Method

142 Chapter VI: Card Tricks Based on a New and Original System of Locating a Chosen Card
142 Chosen Card Appears in Any Part of the Deck
150 – Second Method
150 – Third Method
152 – Fourth Method
154 – Fifth Method
155 – Sixth Method
157 The Ubiquitious Cards – First Method
162 – Second Method

165 Chapter VII: Clarivoyance With Cards
165 First Method
165 Second Method
166 Third Method

169 Chapter VIII: A Series of Card Tricks Based on a New and Original System
169 The Irregularities of Scroll Designed Cards
171 Mind-Reading with Cards
173 Divination Extraordinary
174 The Transfixed Card
176 The Magician’s Will Power
178 Prophecy Down-to-Date

183 Chapter IX: The Rising Cards
184 The Tattlings of Toto
191 De Kolta’s Rising Cards
194 De Kolta’s New Rising Cards
198 The Rising Cards in Swinging Houlette
202 The Thurston Rising Cards
207 Resurrection of the Cards

213 Chapter X: The Four Ace Trick
213 First Method
215 Second Method
216 Third Method
217 Fourth Method
218 Fifth Method
219 Sixth Method
221 Seventh Method

224 Chapter XI: Card Tricks with Apparatus and in Combination with Other Objects
225 Card, Orange and Candle
229 The Card in the Frame
235 The Valladon Cards on Glass

243 Chapter XII: Fancy Flourishes with Coins, Useful Sleights and Additions to the Miser’s Dream
243 An Illusive Coin Pass
245 The Hilliard Pass
245 The Wrist Palm
246 The Coin Roll
248 The Coin Through the Knee
249 The Traveling Coin
249 Down’s Latest Method for “The Miser’s Dream”

251 Chapter XII: Coin Tricks With and Without Apparatus
251 The Sympathetic Coins
255 The Coin Through the Hat
256 The Expansion of Texture
260 The Bewitched Nickel
261 The Disappearing Dollars
262 The Free and Unlimited Coinage of Silver
263 Coin, Glass and Cone
266 The Trained Half-Dollar
267 The New Flying Coin
267 The Coin Through the Hat
268 The Transmutation of Metal
270 Subtraction of Money
270 Every Man His Own Mint
271 New Coin Catching
271 A New Coin Combination
273 The Downs Coin Wand
275 The New Coin Wand
276 A New Coin Spider

278 Chapter XIV: A Coin Act and a Coin Ladder
278 A Coin Act and a Coin Ladder
280 The Coin Dropper
282 The Table
282 The Coin Easel

289 Chapter XV: Tricks of the Trade
289 Tricks of the Trade: painting, table tops, other construction and prop tips

294 Chapter XVI Chapter XVI: Tricks With Eggs
294 To Balance an Egg on a Table
295 Egg Changed into Confetti
296 A New Idea in the Vanishing of an Egg
296 The Eggs from the Mouth
297 The Conjurer as Chicken Fancier
298 Japanese Egg Trick
300 The Latest Egg, Handkerchief and Glass Trick
304 “Eggsample”: card to egg

305 Chapter XVII Tricks With Balls
305 The Four Ball Trick With Novel Passes
310 Passing Four Solid Balls from Hand to Hand
313 Color Change with Four Solid Balls
314 The Traveling Balls

319 Chapter XVIII: Miscellaneous Trick
319 The Four Paper Balls and Plates
320 The Flying Salt
321 The Cigarette Paper Trick
325 The Torn Bank Note
329 The Bill and Lemon Trick
331 The Ring on the Wand
332 The Mysterious Match
333 The Inexhaustible Hat
335 The Mysterious Knot
336 The Vanishing Knot
337 The Mystic Tie
338 The Jacoby Rope Tie
341 The Rope Tie Par Excellence
342 Escape from a Paper Cylinder
343 The Giant Memory
344 The Trance Vision – First Method
345 – Second Method
346 The Quick or the Dead
347 Don’ts
348 L’Envoi

349 Index

• Publisher: Arthur P. Felsman
• Pages: 354
• Location: Chicago, IL, USA
• Edited by: John Northern Hilliard
• Dimensions: 6″x9″
• Date: 1909, 1921
• Binding: hardbound

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