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French Drop
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French Drop or Tourniquet is a sleight of hand method for making a small object, like a coin, vanish.
Known as a false take, one hand apparently takes a coin from the fingertips of the other hand
It was published in 1584 by Reginald Scot within The Discoverie of Witchcraft.
Originally called "tourniquet" in France, with the term "French Drop" coming into use by 1876 as seen within Modern Magic by Professor Hoffmann. It was also called "The French Vanish" in the 1941 Tarbell Course in Magic Volume One book.
Other Publications
- Le Tourniquet, Les Secrets de la prestidigitation et de la magie by Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, page 64, (1868)