Buatier De Kolta (né Joseph Buatier, 1845 Caluire-et-Cuire (Rhône, France); 1903) was a french magician who performed throughout the 1870s and 1880s in England and America. De Kolta was a contemporary of fellow French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Many of De Kolta's illusions, such as multiplying steel balls, the expanding die and the appearing bird cage, are performed by magicians today.
De Kolta is known for his De Kolta Chair or Praying Lady illusion. A woman prayed a chair, covered by a large cloth would appear to vanish before an audience. Present-day magician David Copperfield has adapted this illusion in his own performances. De Kolta is the subject of the book Buatier de Kolta: Genius of Illusion by Peter Warlock.
