The Black Art Table has long since established itself in the affections
of the conjurer as one of his most effective aids. At a stage performance
the presence of one or more such adjuncts is almost a matter of course,
but the drawing room performer finds many occasions when, for one reason
or another, the use of such an aid is precluded. Some wizards, as a
matter of personal convenience, decline to burden themselves with more
artistic luggage than can be bestowed in an ordinary handbag. Others,
again, hold (and not without reason) that the use of a special table,
imported by the performer himself, tends to discount the marvel of his
show; as being suggestive of that “preparation” which every artistic
conjurer is anxious to disclaim. It is no doubt an easy matter to arrange
a good enough programme for which the aid of “black art” is not needed,
but this means the exclusion not merely of a valuable auxiliary, but of
many of the most striking magical effects.
[Illustration: FIG. 8]
I have pleasure in introducing to the reader a substitute which, though
its capabilities fall a good deal short of those of the actual table,
will answer many of its purposes, apart from special merits of its own,
and which has the further recommendation of exceptional portability.
It may be appropriately entitled the Black Art Mat. It consists of a
piece of Bristol board of size and shape suitable to the purpose for
which it is to be used, covered on both sides with black velvet and
edged with narrow ornamental braid or binding. The one side has no
speciality, but the other has a flat pocket across one or more of its
corners; as indicated in Fig. 8. In the case of a mat of small size the
pocket may extend diagonally from corner to corner as in Fig. 9. The
edge of the pocket may be braided if preferred (the rest of the surface
being ornamented to correspond) but if the mat be well made this is not
necessary. The mouth of each pocket is made slightly “full,” and is held
open a quarter of an inch or so by means of a stiffening along its
inner edge. By having the mill-board foundation cut in half before it
is covered, the mat may be made to fold like a chessboard for greater
portability.
[Illustration: FIG. 9]
If some small article, say a coin or ring, is laid on mat just behind the
mouth of the pocket, it may be made to disappear therein, being in fact
swept into the pocket in the act of apparently picking it up. In the case
of a coin, the pocket may by a slight alteration of procedure be used to
effect a “change”; a substitute, palmed beforehand, being exhibited in
place of the one professedly picked up from the mat.
It is desirable when placing the mat upon the table for use to see that
the mouth of the pocket is duly open and has not been, by any accident,
pressed flat, and so closed.
The utility of the black art mat, however, does not depend upon the
pocket only. Its unbroken or “plain” side, or indeed a mat wholly without
pockets may also be very effectively used for vanishing purposes. In this
case a little auxiliary appliance comes into play. This is a small velvet
patch, serving as an “overlay.” It may be round or square, according
to the purpose for which it is intended to be used. For coin-vanishing
purposes it is best circular, and about two inches (or less, as the
case may be) in diameter. The foundation is in this case a disc of thin
card covered on both sides with velvet, in colour and texture _exactly
corresponding with that of the mat_, under which conditions the patch,
when laid on the mat, will be invisible. The exact similarity of the two
surfaces is a point of the highest importance for black art effects, and
the velvet used, if not actually silk velvet, should at least be of the
silk-faced kind. Velvet which is all cotton will never give satisfactory
results.
If a coin be laid on any part of the mat the performer has only (in the
supposed act of picking it up) to lay the velvet patch over it to render
it invisible. If it is desired to reproduce the coin, a handkerchief
shown to be empty, may be laid over the patch, and a moment or two later
picked up again, bringing away the overlay within it, and again revealing
the coin _in statu quo_. A practical example of the use of this device
will be found in the case of the trick entitled _Lost and Found_, _post_.
[Illustration: FIG. 10]
Another little device which will be found useful in connection with the
black art mat is a cardboard disc covered as above, to one side of which
a coin, say a half-crown or half-dollar, is cemented as in Fig. 10. Such
a patch, laid on the mat, coin side down, will attract no notice, but
the mere act of turning it over will at any given moment produce the
coin. The “change” of a coin may be expected very neatly by the aid of
this device. Suppose, for example, that the performer desires to retain,
unknown to the spectators, possession of a marked coin just handed to
him. He lays it, to all appearance, in full view upon the table, but as a
matter of fact merely turns over a patch, loaded as above, already on the
table, the borrowed coin remaining in his hand.
The velvet patch may also be utilised in another way for “changing” a
borrowed coin. The performer, asking the loan of a marked coin, brings
forward held in his left hand a velvet mat (of small size) whereon to
receive it; the right hand meanwhile holding palmed against the second
and third fingers the velvet patch, and between this and the hand a
substitute coin of similar kind. Turning (to the left) towards his table,
with the coin in full view on the mat, he (apparently) picks it up and
holds it aloft with the right hand, placing the now empty mat alone
on the table. What he really does is to lay the velvet patch over the
borrowed coin and to pick the substitute in its place. The original lies
_perdu_ on the mat, whence it is child’s play to gain possession of it at
any later stage of the trick.
The process may be varied by placing the mat, after receiving the
borrowed coin upon it, at once on the table, and a little later picking
up the mat with the left hand, then proceeding as above indicated. The
advantage of this plan is that the turn to the table to pick up the mat
masks for the moment the right side of the performer and gives him a
convenient opportunity to palm the coin and patch, bestowed in readiness
in the _pochette_ on that side.
The same principle may be applied with appropriate modifications to card
tricks. The idea of the black art mat is so completely a novelty that I
have not found leisure to give it the full consideration it deserves,
and have probably far from exhausted its possibilities, but I offer by
way of illustration the trick next following, which it seems to me would
be rather effective, particularly as an introduction to some other card
trick. We will call it