Two months ago we posted a photo of an early Kepplinger Holdout made by Will & Finck from the Doug Edwards Collection. This month Doug sent us a photo of the actual PJ Kepplinger apparatus as made and used by Kepplinger himself in 1888! He has researched this extensively and found an accurate description and depiction of it in the book 'Sharps and Flats' by John Nevil Maskelyne (1894). Although only four or five of these enigmatic machines were built by Kepplinger, this is the only one known to exist today. It is made of lightweight pen metal and still retains 100% of its original interior green felt lining. Doug says, "Of all the items in my magic collection, this is the most ingenious and most substantially made. The inner workings are a visual knockout."For magic tricks using current Holdouts and their variants, order The Invisible Hand Set new 3-DVD set with device.
The Kepplinger Holdout pictured above is from 1888. Courtesy of the Doug Edwards Collection.
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