This last year, thanks to the power of philanthropy, we’ve seen one of our most significant collections at Senate House Library transform before our very eyes. 

Without the slightest sleight of hand, the Friends of the Nations' Libraries and our longstanding friend and supporter Mark Storey have helped us secure an extraordinarily rare example of a conjurer’s blow book, dating from c.1775. The book, which would have been a key item in any contemporary conjurer’s box of tricks, has strengthened Senate House Library’s world-leading collection related to all aspects of magic, and introduces a brand new item to the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature within Senate House Library’s Special Collections.

The book, titled Ambigué Magique, is an eighteenth-century blow book, also known as a flip book or magic colouring book. Blow books are the crux of a magic trick that has been performed for hundreds of years, where blank pages appear to fill themselves in, and are one of the oldest forms of manufactured magic props. 

Descriptions of blow books appear in Reginald Scott’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) and in early instructional books on conjuring, including Hocus Pocus Junior: The Anatomie of Legerdemain (1634), and the Harry Price Library holds first editions of both. 

Travelling back in magic 

​​​​​This acquisition gives our researchers and the general public a rare early example of this type of artefact. Previous blow books that have been available for purchase are mostly 19th century examples. Securing an extremely well-preserved 18th century blow book has taken us further back in time, helping us understand first-hand how the magic works, rather than through observations of the illusion.  

The name ‘blow book’ originates from asking the audience to blow on the pages to produce the magic. The trick involves a performer appearing to show their audience an entirely blank book. Gradually, images appear, first in black and white, then in colour, before they disappear once again. The book is comprised of multiple images, allowing for many different combinations and ways of performing the trick. It comes complete with original paper wrappers, and the edges of the pages have notches cut at various positions, helping the performer to subtly find page openings by touch. The copy has the rare inclusion of a page of instructions at the beginning. 

These books were a mainstay of the printing industry, particularly through the 19th century, ultimately becoming a novelty for children. As such, it is both an important object of performance and conjuring, and of printing and publishing history.