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The Chinese Wallet

1502

The earliest known evidence for the existence of the Chinese Wallet comes from a description in the manuscript 'De Viribus Quantitatis' by Luca Pacioli which was written around 1502. According to the dissertation 'Luca Pacioli and his 1500 book De Viribus Quantitatis' (which can be found at http://repositorio.ul.pt/bitstream/10451/18435/1/ulfc113829_tm_Tiago_Hirth.pdf), 'Pacioli describes how to construct the device with two wooden slabs and 3 straps, forming a “wallet”. Place a straw in between the single strip and close and open the wallet again in the other possible way to produce the straw trapped by the other two straps. Pacioli tells how old people entertain infants with this device.

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c1520

The same device features in a painting by the Italian painter Bernadino Luini (1470 - 1533) which according to David Singmaster ('Some Early Topological Puzzles' in Recreational mathematics magazine number 3 March 2015) can be dated to around 1520.

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c1524

In the same article reference is made to another picture showing a Chinese Wallet, this time by the Venetian painter Bernadino Licinio (1485-c1549) which is said to date to around 1524.

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1584

Instructions for making and operating such a wallet appeared in 'La Premiere partie des subtiles et plaisant inventions' by Jean Prevost, which was published in Lyons in 1584.

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The Chinese Wallet design also appears:

1636

In 'Deliciae physico-mathematicae, oder mathematische und philosophische Erquickstunden' by Daniel Schwenter, which was first published in 1636.

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1684

In the 1684 edition of 'Het natuurlyk tover-boek' by Simon Witgeest.

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1813

In 'Die Zauberkunst' by Carl Ferdinand Leischner, which was published in Ilmenau, Thuringia, in 1831. In this version the Chinese Wallet is combined with the Buddha Papers and is used to swap the positions of the two paper envelopes, which contain playing cards, and are glued either side of the tapes of the wallet.

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1819

As 'Die sonderbare Klappe' (The strange flap) in 'Leichte Künsteleien zum Vergnügen und zum Nutzen für Kinder und Nichtkinder' by Dr Heinrich Rockstroh, which was published by Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich in Berlin in 1819.

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1872

In 'Das Deutschen Knaben Handwerksbusch' by Barth and Niederley, which was published in Bielefield and Leipzig in 1872.

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As The Magic Pocketbook (Die zwei magichen Brieftaschen) in 'Hanky Panky' by W H Cremer, Jun, which was published by John Camden Hotten in London in 1872. The fact that this effect is given a German name in brackets, which other effects are not, may mean that the author has taken this from an earlier German source.

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1940

In 'At Home Tonight' by Herbert McKay, which was published by Oxford University Press in London, New York and Toronto in 1940, as 'A Note-Case'.

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1949

As 'Porte-Billets' inn 'Au Pays des Mains Agiles', which was published by Editions Fleurus in Paris in 1949.

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Jacob's Ladder

1684

As far as I know instructions for making this design first appear in the 1684 edition of 'Het natuurlyk tover-boek' by Simon Witgeest. The seventeenth century Dutch of this section is not easily amenable to translation but it seems to refer back to the diagram for the Chinese Wallet (see above) and to say that additional boards and ribbons can be added so that there are six or eight in all. It also seems to describe the way in which one board can appear to fall from top to bottom of the design so that 'it appears to the ignorant to be a bit of magic'.

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1820

The Winterthur Museum possess a six-panel Jacob's Ladder, made of wooden panels covered with paper and linked with string, which can be dated to between 1770 and 1820. (Information from Michel Grand.) The clips at the side of the panels were probably originally used to hold small bells.

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There is another, quite similar, version, of much the same age, in the Cotsen Children's Library collection at Princeton University.

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1840

Toronto Public Library possesses a five-panel Jacob’s Ladder of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, both in their wedding clothes, which can be dated to 1840. When the handle is rotated the tablets flip over in turn to reveal the other person. (Information from Michel Grand.)

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1850

Charles Dickens describes a Jacob's Ladder toy in his short story 'A Christmas Tree', published in the periodical 'Household Words' in 1850: '... but the Jacob’s Ladder, next him, made of little squares of red wood, that went flapping and clattering over one another, each developing a different picture, and the whole enlivened by small bells, was a mighty marvel and a great delight.'

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1876

Charles Dickens also wrote about this toy in his article 'Toys, Past and Present' in the issue of the periodical 'All the Year Round' for October 1st 1876: 'It consisted of six oblong pieces of wood, adorned with pictures on both sides, and so connected with tapes that when the top piece, which was held in the hand, was turned down, all the others would turn down likewise by an apparently spontaneous movement, causing a new series of pictures to be presented to the eye, which was highly gratified by the change, as were also the ears by the clattering of the wooden tablets and the tinkling of some little bells which they were decorated.'

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1889

There is an article about the Jacob's Ladder in Scientific American, v6, n15, p227, published on 12th October 1889. The article can be found online at here.

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The design also appeared in issue 592 of the 'Boy's Own Paper' for 17th May 1890 in an article titled 'Jacob's Ladder and How to Make It' by H F Hobden. My thanks to Tung Ken Lam for sourcing this illustration.

1894

A drawing of a Jacob's Ladder appears in the illustrated book 'Gekko manga' by Azuma Kenzaburo, which was published in 1894. This is the earliest illustration of this toy that I have been able to find in a Japanese source.

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1899

Jacob's Ladder also appears in 'Le Livre des Amusettes' by Toto, which was published in Paris by Charles Mendel in 1899.

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1932

'Winter Nights Entertainments' by R M Abraham, which was first published by Constable and Constable in London in 1932, contained a description of a Jacob's Ladder toy made from interlocking rings.

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1944

'Ideas Practicas para Juegos y Entretenimientos' by Jorge A Duclout, the second edition of which was published in Buenos Aires in 1944.

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