HOFFMANN, Professor (Angelo Lewis, 1839 ? 1919). Autograph Manuscript Explaining the Crystal Balls Trick. Circa 1900. A lengthy explanation of how to produce glass balls from empty hands, change their colors, and cause them to vanish and visibly multiply. Hoffmann provides sample patter for the routine, describes all required props (including ?pochettes? in the performer?s costume), and technical details. Three folded sheets, rectos only, with numerous strikeouts, corrections (several in red), underlining, marginal notes giving stage directions, and corrections, all in Hoffmann?s hand. With Hoffmann?s rubber-stamped address in the upper right corner of the first leaf. RARE; the first explanation of a magic trick by Hoffmann we have offered.Hoffmann first published methods for this trick in Modern Magic (1876) at page 426. This manuscript, while essentially describing the same effect, does so in different language, and with differences in method from those published in the book.