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The Art of Magic by Thomas Nelson Downs

The Art of Magic by Thomas Nelson Downs
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.


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

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