Apr 02, 2009 - Sale 2175

Sale 2175 - Lot 32

Price Realized: $ 780
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 1,000
PHILLIPS, JOHN. English Fortune Tellers [title taken from lettering piece]. manuscript written in black ink, with headings, numbers, and ruling throughout in red, recto and verso, on laid paper. 76 (of 77?) leaves, including 24 pages with 1440 small hand-drawn dice combinations and 49 pages with 98 astrological diagrams; possibly lacks title leaf. 244x191 mm, 19th-century 1/2 calf, front cover detached; dark stains on several leaves in middle of volume, blank lower portion of last leaf excised and restored. Signature of Robert John Blesard dated 1834. England, 18th century
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Additional Details

Later transcription of an unidentified edition of Phillips''s fortune-telling treatise, in which answers to 24 "necessary questions" about one''s future can be found by following a convoluted series of preliminary steps to arrive at prognostications by popular contemporary English astrologers. Cantamessa 3451; Houzeau & Lancaster 5399. ESTC records only one copy of a 1693 edition and 2 copies of a 1703 edition. Phillips (1631-1706?), was "one of the first hack writers" (ODNB).