The Conjurer

A street magician has a crowd leaning in over his little table, watching the cups-and-balls trick that still works at fairs today. And while they watch, the real business happens behind them. A man in the back, working with the conjurer, is quietly lifting the purse of the wide-eyed man bent closest to the table. In the Netherlands around 1500, this was a known warning rather than a joke. There was even a proverb about it, roughly that whoever lets himself be fooled by tricks loses his money and becomes the children's laughing stock. Look for the small owl on the magician's basket, an old sign of deceit, and the frog spilling from the gaping victim's mouth. The best surviving version hangs at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, kept locked away and rarely lent.