Treat and Trickery at Burgess Hill u3a

Himself a member of the Magic Circle and the author of five books on the subject, Ian began his presentation with a few baffling conjuring tricks. The main theme however was how magicians are represented in art.

Their first representation is widely believed to in an Egyptian hieroglyph where one man appears to be enticing another to decide under which cup a ball is hidden. Various versions of this trick have been painted through the ages by famous artists such as Breughel and Hieronymus Bosch

However an illustration by Hogarth in 1733 showed showed a real magician called Isaac Fawx who advertised himself as having “dexterity of hand”. George Cruickshank, who went on to illustrate Oliver Twist also advertised himself earlier in his life as performing the “Vanishing Tooth Trick”

Cartoons often represented well known politicians as magicians or conjurors pulling rabbits or surprises out of hats, sometimes successfully,sometimes not.

It proved to be both an informative and entertaining presentation, with a touch of magic for good measure.