Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

THE RED-AND-BLACK-BALL VASES.--The receptacle for the ball is in this case made in the form of a neat vase, and without any of those tell-tale grooves which disfigure the older ball-box. (See Fig. 128.) Like its prototype, it is in three parts, which we will distinguish as before by the letters a, b, and c. The portion b, however, in this case goes completely within the lid c, within which it fits just tightly enough to be lifted off with it. When, however, the performer desires to leave b upon a, he presses down, in the act of lifting off the cover, a moveable button or stud at the top. This pushes out the shell b from the cover, and, when the latter is lifted, leaves it upon a. When used in pairs, the ball-vases are usually made with one red and one black ball, the shells b of each vase being also one black and one red. The balls are first offered for examination, after which the red ball is placed in the vase containing the black shell, and the black ball in that which contains the red shell. The vases are then covered, and on the covers being again removed, leaving the hollow shells upon the vases, the red ball being covered by the black shell, and the black ball by the red shell, the effect to the spectator is as if the two balls had changed places. By leaving alternately the one or the other shell over its respective vase, the ball in the opposite vase being left uncovered, the vases may be made to appear as if both containing red balls or both black balls, the genuine balls being finally again exhibited as at first.