The Imp Bottle, was my first store bought trick, going all the way back to the early nineteen seventies. All of these years later, I'm tickled to still see Adam's version of the trick, in the same packaging that I remember from way back when. I still keep one with me, as it is the trick that led me further into what turned out to be years of studying, exploring, and performing magic. Like the ball and vase, this little bottle will be known to anyone who has played with magic as a child. Whats interesting now, is that the trick has had serious handlings beyond the traditional 'I can make it lay down but you can't'.
Lewis Ganson's 'Art of Close up Magic' has handlings/routines, from some top performers; Kenton Knepper has a routine where the bottle slowly stands up in the hand; wooden versions are still around (Viking's 'Haunted Bottle', and another version called 'The Genii Jug' by a different manufacturer). The bottle is also mentioned in Dunninger's Complete Encyclopedia of Magic, presented as a physics experiment, right next to a ball version of 'cubio'. So, there's a history to this effect, as well as more in depth presentations beyond how the trick is, and has been sold for so many years. A few years back, Mike Gallo put his spin on the Ball and Vase trick, which re-injected life into that classic-gone-mass-market-dime-store-kids-trick-which undoubtedly popped out of kid's cereal boxes as well! Even Marlo in Arcade Dreams, shares his handlings of this, and other popular 'kid's tricks'.
I only wish, that someone would make a version of the Imp Bottle that is wooden, or metal, but not neccesarily as high end as Viking's version ( which uses a different principal). Indeed, it's a charming old trick, and the idea of a bottle inhabited by a 'spirit', was even the subject of a Rudyard Kipling story entitled 'The Bottle Imp'. To me, this is an effect which can be taken much much further, than how it is still sold as: a cute, novel, kid toy/puzzle.