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These are, strictly speaking, only flower-pot cases, called in French cache-pots. They may be of leather or cardboard, ornamented on the outside, but plain black inside, their general appearance being as shown in Fig. 4. They have neither top nor bottom, and when not in use, can be opened out flat or rolled up as in Figs. 5 and 6, for greater portability.

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

The pair, when needed for use, are exhibited in the first instance as one only, the one within the other. The professedly single pot, after being proved empty by exhibiting the interior and passing the hand through it, is made into two, by simply drawing out the inner one. The duplication is not presented as a trick, the modus operandi being self-evident, but it has a pretty effect, and the exhibiting of the two pots as one in the first instance admits of the presence, within the outer one, of a secret pocket, open at top, as depicted in Fig. 7, but folding down, when not in use, flat against its side.[2]

Fig. 7

The main object of this pocket is to enable the performer to “vanish” a card. The card to be got rid of is dropped ostensibly into the flower-pot, or rather, the pot being bottomless, through it on to the table, where, when the pot is lifted, the spectators naturally expect to see it. It has however disappeared, having in fact been dropped into the pocket, where it remains concealed. Two, or even three cards may on occasion be dealt with in the same way. By covering the pocket with the fingers in the act of picking up the pot, the interior of the latter may be freely shown after their disappearance.

The pocket, previously loaded accordingly (though the flower-pot is shown, to all appearance, empty), may also be used for the production of a card or cards.

[2] It is extremely difficult to construct the “pots” so that the pocket is workable on the concave inner surface, but if they are made four, five or six-sided the pocket folds against a flat surface and works perfectly.—Ed.