Arnold De Biere’s silk butterfly production

The production of a huge butterfly was a feature of De Biere’s act. It was the finale of a routine described in the Magic Circular of June 1915: ‘A large red silk foulard changed to yellow by drawing it through one hand, this changes to blue by same means, the blue becomes a big bunch of different coloured silks, and these are transformed into a huge silk butterfly.’ The butterfly is over 1.5m wide. The apparatus that made this possible was built by the expert magicians’ mechanic John Martin. It was subsequently purchased by Davenports along with many other De Biere properties.