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Double Lift from Center
A crude description of the removal of a double card from the center of the deck can be found in Downs and Hilliard's The Art of Magic, 1909, p. 58. It is described in the context of a routine for Hofzinser's “Everywhere and Nowhere”. While this handling is claimed to be Hofzinser's, the Double Lift from the center is not supported by any known manuscripts and descriptions of Hofzinser's methods. The source of the particular handling given by Downs and Hilliard is not stated and seems likely to have been conveyed to them through an inaccurate report via correspondence or conversation.
Bob Weill described a Double Lift from the center of the inner end of the deck in his column “Bob's This 'N That” in The Linking Ring, Vol. 14 No. 2, Apr. 1934, p. 114.
An unusual Double Lift from the center of the deck by Cy Endfield was recorded by Lewis Ganson in Cy Endfield's Entertaining Card Magic, Part 1, 1955, p. 12. The double card is extracted with two cards inserted partially into the center of the deck. This Double Lift later was called the Pincers Double Lift or Tweasers Double Lift.
Later handlings include Jack Avis, who published his approach in Pentagram, Vol. 12 No. 10, July 1958, p. 75, and Larry Jennings contributed a similar sleight, displaying a mildly flourishy fingertip handling, to The Gen, Vol. 20 No. 5, Sep. 1964, p. 130.