This is similar to “The Mystery of the Floating Head” in Herrmann’s Book of Magic (full text), originally published in 1903 and in a Web edition at Fourmilab in July, 2006. This trick adds two mirrors to reflect the area behind the hidden region. Unlike the trick Herrmann presented, which counts on a uniformly coloured curtain surrounding the trick, this only works for observers looking directly at the cloaked object and from sufficiently far away that light rays are near-parallel.