Oct 14, 2021 - Sale 2582

Sale 2582 - Lot 110

Price Realized: $ 1,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 500
The Conjuror's Magazine, or Magical and Physiognomical Mirror. Including a Superb Edition of Lavater's Essays on Physiognomy.

London: Printed for w. Locke, 1792 [and] 1793.

Two octavo volumes containing issues from August 1791 through July 1793; each of the two volumes with general title with engraved frontispiece, in volume one we see the magician in his study, holding a snake and consulting a large volume, surrounded by specimens in jars, with two visitors at the door; the second volume's frontispiece is Overton's engraved calendar for 1738 with a portrait of George III at the center, full-page engraved Table of the Essential Dignities of the Planets bound between pages 134 and 135; issues printed in two columns with astrological and palm-reading text woodcut diagrams, each with a four-page index at the end; bound in uniform contemporary half calf with marbled paper boards, very dry, in need of rebinding, 8 1/2 x 5 in.

The Conjuror's Magazine contains ephemerides, planetary charts, and selection of essays on occult topics including palmistry, apparitions, prophecies, magic, alchemy, puzzles, sleights of hand, psychic and paranormal activity, true crime, dice-playing, fortune-telling, and biographies of magicians.

ESTC P3087; Ward's Index of Serials (page 35); NCBEL II: 1309; Times Handlist page 46; Crane & Kaye 119; rare ESTC lists seven copies in U.S. libraries.