One-of-a-kind Vanishing Dove Cage designed by Dan Sperry and engineered and built by Tim Clothier/Illusion Projects. In amazing shape – shows performance wear from shows including Broadway and around the world.

A one-of-a-kind performing work of art prop – everything on it is in great shape and working order ready to get put on stage or on display if you are a collector. This exclusive design took nearly one year to finish and perfect – lots of unique aspects and details to make this cage look like it was really just pieced together with different materials and textures down to fake bird poop drops!

Some of the specific aspects that make this cage really unique:

– NO bars. Instead of tape measure bars this cage uses a custom cut plastic on 4 roller shades to give it more of a solid “box” look to it.

– DUAL PISTON. I wanted to get away from the classic single center piston and break up the piston poles by disguising them with torn metal black art and having one on each side allowed me to create to separate illusions of disjointed table “legs”. Like all professional vanishing dove cages the pistons each have a valve control for air/vanish speed. I have taped these off because I have set them at – what I feel – is the right “Goldilocks” vanish speed and both sides are balanced. You can adjust them as you like but I really stress to not make the cage vanish any faster it is already at a good steady smooth speed.

– NO BEVELS. I always liked Norm’s original vanishing dove cage base that had “tiers” or “layers” to it instead of the bevel so I wanted to draw inspiration from that for the base. The base pan itself is 3.24in deep for the doves and has several rows of air holes in the bottom for them. The base depth is hidden by camouflaging it with “tiers” or “layers” of mixed medium and color and texture to break it up with the wood planks then grunged out metal frame, etc.

– BIGGER CAGE. I didn’t want the cage to look fragile or flimsy and to also have plenty of room for the doves to comfortably sit. The “cage” part itself measures 13in deep / 20.75in wide / 14in tall. Although the cage is taller than most the perch hangs lower so there is less of a “drop” for them to travel.

– EASY ASSEMBLY. I didn’t want to have to deal with a bunch of nuts and bolts and further hardware. At the time I was touring on a bus a lot with my equipment going on a truck and had to have my props packed and ready at a certain place at a certain time and I didn’t want to spend all day putting my act together and breaking it down so I required Tim find a way to make it all go together with pins. And it does. It all goes together with 12 pins. The only “threading” is the two pistons on each side. No nuts and bolts or other hardware. It breaks down into basically 5 pieces: table top, left piston, right piston, left base, right base. There are a few pieces of flat bar that go on with the pins to reinforce and stabilize it. Each piece is easily marked for assembly.

After all the time, refabs and adjustments to get this finished I’m kind of embarrassed now to admit what I originally paid for this?it might be currently the world’s most expensive vanishing dove cage haha but it was like $11,000 – I mean this thing is almost like a mini illusion at this point.

The prop is 24 in front/back and 34 in side/side and 38 in tall when cage is collapsed.

The “cage” itself is 13 in deep / 20.75 in wide / 14 in tall.

Road case is 18 in deep / 33.5 in tall (on wheels) / 38 in wide

One of a kind, won’t be another one ever like it.

Vimeo video going over up close details of the cage:
https://vimeo.com/1070609590/d16c78249e?share=copy

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