Flight of the Falcon No. 11 by Alan Warner

Perfection attained 🙂

In 1997, to celebrate 25 years of Alan Warner Mini Magic, the Flight of the Falcon was created as a limited edition of just 25 units.  To this day Flight of The Falcon is my favorite single piece of Alan’s magic.  In my opinion it best demonstrates his incredible craftsmanship, design talent, and ingenuity.

The wood work is exquisite as always, but more intricate than usual with some incredible inlay work.  There is lots of color too and it is securely housed in a beautiful presentation case.

The effect is simple: any one of the 3 chosen falcons disappear from the casket and reappear in the Reliquary.  No force is involved and it can be repeated with a different outcome on another occasion.

Apart from the sheer beauty of this item I like how Alan came up with an elegant way to start with the lid on the casket and use it as  a way to show the falcon in the reliquary.  It achieves two things and although it seems simple and even obvious when you see it, I don’t think other creators would have necessarily created such an elegant solution to the problem.

I am glad to be able to add this incredible item back into my collection after an absence of twenty years and finally able to update my photos and add a video from when I first purchased this in 2002. My heart still skips a beat when I see those wings on the casket.

Alan, you have created more impressive collections of magic, but for me this is you at your very best, I love this beautiful effect 🙂

(Notice: the three colored dice are not part of the original effect, I just added them to demonstrate how any falcon could be chosen when I performed the video.)

Effect: The first Egyptian King or Pharaoh of the IVth dynasty was Soris of whom little else is known. The most obvious explanation for the loss of all record of his life and times must lie with the grave robbers who plundered his tomb, removing from it all the sacred and precious artifacts which the Pharaoh chose for himself for his after-life, and leaving only the various chests and caskets which originally housed these valuable objects.

Among these plundered chests and caskets were the reliquary which housed the sacred objects from the Pharaoh’s personal standard, and the casket containing the icons representing the falcons which guarded the sacred objects in the reliquary for Soris.

The performer removes the lid from the casket to reveal that it is divided into three compartments, but that only two of these compartments have icons contained within them. The third icon is in the Pharaoh’s reliquary which the falcons guard in turn to this day even though the reliquary was plundered thousands of years ago and the sacred objects from the Pharaoh’s personal standard were stolen from it by the grave robbers.

The performer now picks up the reliquary, which features the dyed coloured wood motif of Soris’s head and shakes it. THE MISSING ICON CAN BE CLEARLY HEARD MOVING ABOUT INSIDE THE RELIQUARY. The performer confirms that the third icon is indeed inside the reliquary by tipping out the icon representing the blue falcon. This icon is then placed with the other two icons in the casket. Once again the reliquary is shaken. This time NO SOUND IT HEARD, and the performer explains that while we (the performer and his spectators) know that the reliquary has been plundered and that there is now no longer anything in it to guard, the falcons continue to this day to carry out their sacred duty of guarding it for their Pharaoh.

A spectator is invited to select which of the three falcons he or she would like to guard the reliquary now that the blue one has been removed from it and placed with the others in the casket. When the spectator has indicated his or her choice of colour, the performer replaces the lid on the casket. He then goes on to explain that as soon as the lid was replaced on the casket, the selected falcon immediately took flight from it to stand on guard ion the reliquary. To prove this, the performer picks up the reliquary and tips out THE COLOURED ICON WHICH THE SPECTATOR SELECTED. The performer then returns to the casket, lifts its lid and reveals that THE SELECTED ICON IS NOW MISSING FROM ITS COMPARTMENT.

THE SPECTATOR HAS A COMPLETELY FREE CHOICE OF ANY ONE OF THE THREE COLOURED ICONS: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO FORCE OF ANY DESCRIPTION INVOLVED IN THIS EFFECT.

THE CHOICE IS MADE BY THE SPECTATOR WHILE ALL THREE ICONS ARE IN THE CASKET: THE SELECTED ICON DOES NOT HAVE TO BE LOCATED IN ANY ONE SPECIFIC COMPARTMENT.

TOP QUALITY APPARATUS:

• UNUSUAL MAGIC,
• SUPERBLY HANDCRAFTED IN TEAK AND MAHOGANY
• The casket, measuring 12.5 x 7 x 3 cms approx., is made in teak and features inlaid banding and an Egyptian motif design which has been set in relief on its lid.
• The teak reliquary (7 x 7.5 x 1.5 cms approx.) has the head of the Pharaoh set in relief on the top of it.
• The special cabinet, which has four compartments in it and houses all the apparatus used in this effect, is veneered in mahogany, then waxed several times and hand-polished.
• The interior of the cabinet is lined with green velour to protect the apparatus.
• The size of the cabinet is 17.75 x 9.25 z 9.25 cms approx. (with brassed door hinges and catches).

The apparatus comes complete with The Alan Warner Routine.

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