Description
Ponsin on Conjuring
by S. H. Sharpe
1987 Second edition, published by Jeff Busby
Mint condition!
From Jeff Busby Magic, Inc. 1986 advertisement:
From the translator of the famed Hofzinser’s Card Conjuring . . .
A New and Revised Edition of
S.H. Sharpe’s
PONSIN ON CONJURING
Jean-Nicholas Ponsin’s 1853 French textbook on magic was a milestone — the first book ever published to explain exactly how the leading magicians of the day performed their most prized effects . . . effects that even today are groundbreaking! Yet Ponsin’s revolutionary book remained inaccessible to English-speaking magicians until S. H. Sharpe issued his scholarly translation Ponsin on Conjuring in 1937.
Published in a strictly limited edition of only 300 copies, Ponsin on Conjuring has long been unavailable — even scarcer and more sought after today than the first edition of Sharpe’s remarkable J.N. Hofzinser’s Card Conjuring — his classic work dealing with the legendary Hofzinser.
Mr. Sharpe, noted author of such classic theoretical, historical, and practical works as the famous Hofzinser book, Neo Magic, and Conjurer’s Optical Secrets has authorized a new and updated edition of his rare and important work.
Material from the original French edition of Ponsin’s book subsequently found its way into such classic English works as Hoffmann’s Modern Magic and Erdnase’s The Expert at the Card Table with little or no credit. Yet, a great deal of it remained unpublished in English until Sharpe’s translation.
And, as with the material invented by Hofzinser, the most up-to-date performers and writers of magic of today are repeating Ponsin without being aware of it! As Sharpe pointed out in his original preface to the text: “Though times have changed in many ways since Ponsin studied conjuring and wrote about it, most of the effects he wrote about are suitable for the present-day magician; either in the form he gives them, or with such modifications as modern conditions call for. . . To twentieth century audiences many of these mysteries would be completely novel, and worthy of the expert’s attention . . . “.
The leading experts of the day agreed:
“English speaking magicians cannot thank you enough for this gift, that gives them an insight into a treasure of magical ideas… I hardly studied another magical book with more zeal and fervency than this one…”. — Ottokar Fischer, author of the original German edition of J.N. Hofzinser’s Card Conjuring to S.H. Sharpe on receipt of his copy of Ponsin on Conjuring.
“… the part devoted to playing cards is still the best treatise on the subject written in French …”. — Camille Gaultier, author of Magic Without Apparatus, the classic book on pure sleight of hand.
“… there had been only one competant book on the subject… the general run of books on conjuring remained on a dead level of mediocrity and worthlessness. The first useful manual of conjuring was published at Rheims in 1853, by J. N. Ponsin . . . “. — S. W. Clarke, writing in his seminal Annals of Conjuring.
Ponsin on Conjuring is full of inspirational material — new ideas that can and are being used. The book includes several intriguing card effects, including two startling ideas using a Hofzinser Transparent Card — one the ending for a Four Ace Trick and the other a sucker revelation. The astute magician will realize that these can be modernized instantly by substituting a flashlight or lightbulb for the candle used by Ponsin — an ideal example of how viable these effects are today. Also included in this section is a Blindfold Poker Deal; an effect where one of three indifferent cards changes to a mentally selected card; and one where a pointer unerringly finds a selected card.
There are several effects with coins including one in which, during a Coins Across routine, a spectator’s finger instantly penetrates a large coin (shades of David Roth’s Karate Coin!). Also included in this section is the magical subtraction of several coins irom a spectator’s hand; a balancing effect; and an effect wherein a marked coin vanishes to appear in a spectator’s pocket. The Cups and Balls are the cornerstone of magic. Ponsin’s section on this classic will open your eyes: Ponsin takes pains to describe the variations as performed by the legendary Conus — a routine using metal balls! — the same idea with which prize-winning magician Paul Gertner has caused a sensation. Also covered are several impromptu effects; mental routines; effects with watches, coins, dice, handkerchiefs, a glass of champagne, birds, the progenitor of the modern-day Sliding Die Box, a harm-free method for performing the Bullet Catch, a multiple version of the Card in Lemon, and a brilliant but indescribable plot with borrowed objects in which each is mysteriously transformed into a junky form of itself!
You may find the language archaic, but on reading through this book you will find novel and practical methods and plots, the like of which have not previously been published. The thinking magician will find much to modernize and play with.
The book is a thick 178 typeset pages, 5 by 7 in size, with 20 line drawings, spiral bound in art board covers.
