Conjuring performance. 18th-century artwork of a conjurer performing a magic trick. The description of the trick is: 'The professor of amusing philosophy who having burned a card (taken at chance) to ashes, throws the pack in the air at which he fires a pistol, and ye card is found nailed to the wall'. This artwork is the frontispiece to 'The Conjurer Unmasked' (1785), by French lawyer Henri Decremps (1746-1826), aimed at unmasking charlatans.