Debbie McGee spent many nervous moments shackled inside this box as magician husband Paul Daniels skewered it with spikes.
She lived to tell the tale and now she is putting the Geometrix illusion device up for sale, hoping it will perform a vanishing act of its own – going, going, gone at auction next month.
The box, one of Daniels' most famous illusions, is among a treasure trove of his tricks, costumes and props that is expected to fetch around £200,000.
Daniels died in 2016, aged 77, and Debbie, 63, says she feels now is the right time to part with it.
She said: "Before now I couldn't really let anything go. But it seems unfair of me to hold on to these things without sharing it."
His magic collection, stored at their home in Henley-on-Thames, Berks, includes famous tricks he performed on his hit BBC One show, the biggest collection of magic posters ever sold in the UK, playing cards, wands and his magician's top hat.
There are also books written by other artists who inspired Daniels.
His Geometrix illusion box is expected to fetch £12,000 alone. The trick featured twice on The Paul Daniels Magic Show, in 1985 and again a decade later.
Another illusion, Daniels' personal favourite, was Phantom, based on The Phantom of the Opera, and is also in the sale.
The levitation trick includes a bed and four costumes, one for the Phantom, one for the levitating woman and two costumes for the assistant, and is set to fetch £30,000.
Sleight of hand tricks include a selection of playing cards, disappearing flower bouquets, a string of silk hankies and a prediction ruse.
Do you enjoy reading about celebrities? Sign up for all the best celeb news from the Mirror here .
Daniels amassed about 500 vintage posters related to other magicians on his travels. They are worth £60,000 and date as far back as the late 1800s.
Debbie, who wed Daniels in 1988 after becoming his regular assistant on his TV show in 1979, said: "I'm never going to use the tricks again and I don't look at these things." She had given some items to his three sons from his first marriage.
But, she said: "There's a lot of magicians around the world that collect magic things like Paul did and he always had this feeling that you have a time owning something and then it's time for somebody else to own it.
"At first it was such an emotional wrench, but now I'm actually getting some pleasure from going through everything. It's been cathartic. The illusions are things I did and have memories of when I did it and they are all one-offs.
"The Geometrix was my favourite illusion to do. That's quite a wrench to let go of, but where would I put it?
"There's also the Phantom trick, based on The Phantom of the Opera, where the girl, me, was levitated. With that we are selling the whole scene.
"It was such a big spectacle. We performed it on the TV show, at the Grand Order of Water Rats ball and let Paul's son, who is also a magician, do it for Penn and Teller."
She said she had come across things in the collection that she never knew he had kept. She said: "There's a trick he used for master classes in America. I found a letter from Houdini inside a book, I didn't know he had it.
"He also had an amazing book collection. When I was going through them I thought it's no wonder he had the knowledge he had.
"Lots of them have got book stamps so you can see they have been passed on to different magicians. It's so fascinating and great for younger magicians to get hold of this knowledge.
"Some of the items will be used by magicians, others will just go to collectors. David Copperfield is interested in buying some for his museum in America, so they won’t be used but people will get to see them.
"Paul wasn't just a legend in England, he was known all over the world. There wasn't anybody else that did the amount of TV shows we did. Paul would have loved the fact other people will own something of his."
The greats of the magic world are expected to head to the sale at Special Auction Services, Newbury, Berks, on November 23 and 24.
Director Thomas Forrester said: "Paul was the seminal magician of the 20th century.
"It's a real once in a lifetime auction. Some of these tricks and illusions are works of art. It's all fascinating and really rare for something like this to come to auction."
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct 0207 29 33033.
