Excerpt from Creativity '07 By Dan Sylvester "the Jester" (Lecture notes.)

"So Imagine now you are Early Man thousands of years ago on a moonlit night you see someone kneeling with his head bowed and his hands clasped together in front of him a bit of curious movement in his hands and suddenly a spark; light! and finally fire! At that moment if you hadn't fainted you may have spotted a stick of wood between his hands and wondered if this stick may hold magical powers or if this mans prostrate position was the secret for communion with the divine. Who can say for sure? But it could be that the stick (or wand) for making fire has been passed down to magicians today. And may be the position people assume when they pray came from this fire making position of long, long ago. We can never know but I'd be remiss in talking about art, magic or creativity and not talk about its possible origins even if they are theoretical."

I am curious if there is any known origin of black wand white tips? I have read through this and still not sure I see an answer accept for the art deco movement.

Here is my GUESS
When magicians moved to evening dress the top hat , tails and black canes with lighter metal or ivory times were in fashion. The theme of the gentleman's cloths is primarily black and white.

It would tand to reason that the gentleman magican would customize his wand to match this black and white theme.

Unless there is evidence that a round dowel style wand with black middle and white tips was used before this period , ie when magicians were wearing wizard clothing ,my explainatin might be more realistic.

Magic had its First Golden age in the 20s with Kellar, Thurston, Blackstone, and Houdini and these men wore their penguine suits and used tradtional clothing in their acts. Lets face it, magicians can be creative, but they also love to copy what works. See a nice trick or prop and we all want it in our acts.
IT would stand to reason that there were allot of magicians using black wands with lighter tips and magicians hold onto things long time. Eventually with enough black wands with white tips being mass produced, and then put in toy magic sets, it just became identified with us. I am still suprised that top hats have stuck around. The lay community rarely sees a top hat, let alone a magician wearing top hat and tails. It is amazing the dress of the past still infulencing magic to this day. Once could aruge that magicians and some musical reviews and weddings have kept the top hat makers in business.

I could be wrong, if there is proof of the black and white wand prior to the clothing change, I would like to read more.

All I know is....

I should be getting the Joe Porper folding wand that I ordered from him next week.

What a thing of beauty!!!

So...here are a few tid bits of information that for some reason have stuck in my brain for a long time.

The late EARL EDWARDS, (Earl owned the now defunct EDMAR MAGIC SHOP in Norfolk, VA) once told me that Alexander Hermann, made his own wands, by knocking the rung out of a chair in his dressing room. He dunked it in black paint, and had a wand~

Jay Marshall (we were discussing the Petrie & Lewis "factory") said the Petrie used ladies lipsticks for the chrome tips on their wands.

The late (mentor of mine) Roy Mayer, of St. Louis, MO, made his own wand sh**ls for the vanishing wand. He could only find non shiny black paper, so he painted his wand with FLAT black paint.

Stuart Ross (another early mentor)when working during the depression of the '30s, found that wand sh**ls, even at 12 for a dollar, were too expensive, so, he made his own from LIFE magazine covers and black liquid shoe polish.

Can't believe I didn't find this thread until now since magic history fascinates me. I appreciate all the info everyone shared. Thanks.

This whole piece of history is fascinating

I relies you posted this years ago, but if you knew this story well (and I'm a Christian, so I do) you would know that this took place in Egypt.

I know you wrote this years ago, but a correction: Moses was in Egypt when this took place.