Buatier de Kolta

Buatier de Kolta was a French magician and inventor whose subtle, highly deceptive creations transformed nineteenth-century stage magic. Working in an era of heavy mechanical apparatus, he was admired for effects that achieved their impossibility through elegant, minimal method.

He is best remembered for the Expanding Box and the Vanishing Lady, illusions that became foundational to the repertoire of stage magic and are still performed today. De Kolta's inventive influence is regarded by historians as among the most consequential in the history of illusion design.