Conjuring & Magic Cards

Elizabeth I enjoyed watching card tricks and in 1602 paid an Italian magician 200 crowns for performing tricks such as "telling of any card that is thought, or changing one card from another though it be held by any man never so hard under his hand.". Possibly derived from gambling or fortune telling, conjuring with playing cards gradually became popular as a form of entertainment. A professional magician today will admit that all his/her tricks are based upon illusion and sleight of hand, or to be more correct: "Magicians also use psychology, misdirection, lateral thinking and down-right skulduggery!" (Thanks to Justin Monehen, Magic Consultant, Marvin’s Magic).

esigned by W. Tringham in London (1772), these conjurer's cards are divided diagonally, so that one half of each card shows a figure, whilst the opposite half appears like a normal pip card.  The instruction card reads: "Instructions for useing the Cards. The Method of showing them is by keeping ye first card (which is a conjuror) allways at the front & turning the others Upside down, which will discover either figures or pips..."  By a mixture of false shuffling and sleight of hand, the cards can be fanned out and made to appear to change from figures to pips. Cards like these were known in Holland, Germany, France, Portugal and England, but are very rare.  The reverse of the cards is blank (white).

Left: Special Magic pack for conjurers, made in Portugal, c.1850. (Click on images to see more)

Left: Magician's playing cards, made by Alf Cooke Limited (Universal Playing Card Co.), Leeds & London, c.1955.  The pack comprises 48 cards, plus 1 joker: 24 cards are normal cards, and 24 cards are identical sevens of spades, slightly shorter in height, so that various card tricks can be performed by clever shuffling and flicking of the card corners.  Reverse: blue pattern. According to Keith Bennett (http://www.kbmagic.com/) it "was not made as a trick pack by Alf Cooke, but would have been made into a trick pack by a magic dealer. Alf Cooke did however supply cards in two fractionally different sizes at one point in order to facilitate the manufacture of trick packs; they also made cards with backs on both sides as well as faces on both sides and partly blank cards"

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