Magic Coloring Book

Magic Coloring Book is an illusion in which a coloring book, as it is being flipped through, first show pages as all blank, then with black and white pictures, and finally all in full color.

The most popular design by Royal Magic contains a magician in front of a red curtain stage on the cover.

History

The principle is based on what used to be called "flip books", "flick books" or "blow books". In demonstrations at annual fairs, the public paid to blow into the book, and the showman would reveal to them their inner thoughts. This led to the term "blow books". It was described in The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) and as early as 1550 by Geronimo Cardano (1501–76), an Italian physician and mathematician, writing in his "De Subtilitate".

Variations

• Magic Stamp Album by John Brearley (1926)