Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

This apparatus is generally used with a solid black ball and a couple of artificial rose-buds, as nearly alike as possible. The apparatus is brought forward empty, and with the solid ball and one of the rose-buds, is handed to the audience for inspection. The two half shells, joined together so as to form a hollow ball, with the second rose-bud within, are placed ready to hand in one of the pochettes of the performer. The audience having duly examined the apparatus, the performer returns to his table, secretly exchanging as he does so the solid for the hollow ball. This latter he places openly in the cup, taking care that the hole in the lower shell duly corresponds with the pin at bottom, and puts on the cover. He now announces that the ball which he has just placed in the cup will at command fly away, and that the rose-bud which he holds shall take its place. The disappearance of the visible rose-bud is effected in any way that the invention or the appliances at command of the performer may suggest; and on the box being opened, so as to part the two shells, the ball has apparently disappeared, and the rose has taken its place. By again closing the box, and this time pressing the stud on the top, the flower may again be made to vanish, and the ball to reappear in its original position. The popular trick of the “flower in the button-hole,” which will be described under the head of Miscellaneous Tricks, may be used in conjunction with this apparatus, the ball being found in the place of the flower, while the latter is made to appear in the button-hole.