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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.

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.

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.

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