Sleight of hand

Sleight were called in the 19th century, those magicians and jugglers, who performed various astounding feats with few and small props. They scored originally for traveling people and performed at fairs, in pubs and at court festivals. Unlike today's magician sleight earned their money less by their performances, but they were mostly itinerant traders who attracted attention by feats and after hawking their wares, often miracle elixirs. Legerdemain is based on deception of the spectator that causes the artist by sleight of hand and distraction.

The term " sleight of hand " comes from the pocket in which these artists were wont to convey all the necessary props.

Famous are the sleight of India and China; in ancient Greece and Rome sleight were early popular. In Italy, they went under the name Praestigiatores, Pilarii ( ball player ) or Saccularii (Pocket Artist ) in towns and villages around.

In the Middle Ages, the itinerant minstrels were in the castles often welcome representatives of the cheerful art ( gaya scienza ), sometimes at the same time also a singer, musician, juggler and jester ( joculatores ), so this name is retained in the derivative forms jugglers and juggler. They got slightly earlier in the dangerous reputation of being sorcerers. Sleight belonged to any of the items, were largely without rights and outlaws.

The most common in the Middle Ages sleight of hand was the so-called cup game in which several balls under three cups back and herwandern. This presented as a harmless gimmick feat applies some as a precursor to the end of the 19th century arisen fraudulent shell game, although both feats are based on different structures and tricks.