Salon de Magie: The Klosterman Collection Part I

Downs, T. Nelson. T. Nelson Downs’ Own Coin Ladder. Mechanical ladder with brass pegs on its face, supported by three nickel-plated legs and terminating at a metal fringe-covered felt top. In performance, Downs produced a handful – perhaps thirty -- coins from his bare hands. Placing a hat containing the coins atop the ladder, for his finale Downs commanded the money to leave the hat, and so they did, cascading down the front of the device into a goblet waiting below. After twelve coins had passed through the hat into the glass, Downs ordered the coinage to “hurry up!” and so bunches of the half-dollars did just that, ending his act with a flurry of silver rushing down the ladder in groups of three or four. Wooden and metal construction with sand driven mechanism concealed at rear. Overall length 36". Accompanied by the original packing case containing spare parts, sand, palming coins (later replacements), a glass to catch falling coins, and other articles used to perform the effect. One pin in front of ladder lacking, else very good. See Salon de Magie, pages 234 – 237. Thomas Nelson Downs (1867 – 1938) was an Iowa farm boy who learned to manipulate coins while working in a railroad telegraph office. By the time of his European debut, his specialized act known as The Miser’s Dream had captured the imagination of variety and music hall spectators worldwide. Downs’ act, catching coins from mid-air in his apparently empty hands, began a trend that developed into a full-blown phenomenon, as handcuff kings, watch wizards, and silken sorcerers alike began taking up the mantle of the specialized magic performance. Despite the notoriety Downs gained from his manipulative miracles, after scoring his initial success on stage, he yearned to present a stage-filling illusion show. With the aid of Guy Jarrett, he did just that, but eventually scrapped the large props for the routine with which he made his name. The use of a Coin Ladder such as this model (he also owned a much larger model made by Martinka & Co.), was perhaps Downs’ homage to the stage illusions he so desired to present. Chapter 13 of Downs’ seminal treatise, The Art of Magic (1909) describes his routine with this Coin Ladder in minute detail, from the construction and operation of the prop to the presentation of the routine. The text credits Carl Anderson with the construction of the device.