Die Box

See also: Dye Box, used with silks.

Die Box (or Sucker Die Box or the Sliding Die Box) is typically a "sucker" effect using a box with four flap openings to give the impression that a large die placed inside slides from one end to the other.

Carlton with Die Box from Will Goldston, The Magician Annual 1911-1912

Typical effect: A hat is placed on the table. A solid wooden die is taken out of the hat and is shown along with a box containing two compartments and four doors. With all doors open, the die is placed into the compartment on the left side. The doors are closed, the box is tilted to one side, and the audience can hear the die sliding into the right compartment. The left door is opened to show that the die has "disappeared". To "prove" it is completely gone, the door is closed and the box is tilted the other way (the audience hears the die slide back to the left compartment) and the right door is opened showing no die. After shouts from the audience telling you that the die is just sliding back and forth, both doors are opened at the same time proving the that dice has actually vanish. The die is produced from the hat that was sitting on your table at all times.

On of the earliest description of a piece of apparatus that resembles the Die Box is that of the Shuttle Caddy. It was a two-door, two-compartment cabinet used to store China tea on one side and Ceylon tea on the other and is found in Nouvelle Magie Blanche Devoilee by Ponsin published in 1853.

Most Wonderful Dice Trick from Otto Maurer's Catalogue

The four door sucker version was created by Alexander Davis and was being performed in the United States by 1886. Davis sold the manufacturing rights to Otto Maurer who began marketing it in 1887 as the "Most Wonderful Dice Trick".

The most well known presentation, which many use today was created by Carlton (Arthur Philps) in 1907.

See also: The Diebox (magazine).

Publications

• The Dice Box by Robert J. Gunther in Genii 1966 May.