"Rare" Book by Albert A. Hopkins "Magic Stage Illusions & Scientific Diversions Including Trick Photography"

Books : Antiques : Rare Copies : Magic Tricks And Illusions

 

This is a "Rare" Hard Cover Book of " Magic / Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions / Including Trick Photography Complied & Edited by Albert A. Hopkins. He was also the editor of the "Scientific American Cyclopedia of Receipts, Notes & Queries, Etc." It has an Introduction by Henry Ridgely Evans author of "Hours with the Ghosts or XIX Century Witchcraft, Etc." This page with this information has a tear that is about 2" at the bottom.

This Book measures about 10" by 7" / Large 8vo and weighs about 4 1/2 lbs. It has 556pp including Appendix, Bibliography and Index.

This is a Fascinating book that is a remarkable reference dealing with magic and devulges the secrets of the magician's world. Many illustrations showing how such tricks and illusions are done. Truly an amazing magic book featuring hundred's of conjurer's tricks and stage illusions, juggling and acrobatic performances, fire eaters and sword tricks, ventriloquism, shadowgraphy, mental magic and features hundreds of parlour tricks, acrobatics and stage illusions, each supported with line drawing or photograph.

Studying hundreds of illusions from Ancient Magic, Automatons, Curious Toys, Bottle Magic, Dissolving coins, Dark Chambers, Decapitation (Oh My!), Egg tricks, Magic Flowers, Handkerchief Tricks, Illusive Photography, Jugglers, Mental Magic, Moving Pictures, Ancient Organs, Animated Puppets, Sword Swallower's, Table Rapping, Theatrical Science, Tricks of the Greeks, Thought Transference, Ventriloquism, Wave Effect to X-ray Illusions.

This is an original light pictorial green cloth cover. The Black Rectangular Cover showing two (2) Red Fire Eaters performing an illusion on stage at the Olympia Theater in Paris, these two performers are also in a illustration on page 150 of the book. The Cloth Cover is faded, a little bit dirty, with some dust soiling, some rubbing and some wear with some subtle spotting throughout the top and on the back of the cover and has wear around the top & bottom edges & corners from being slide onto the book shelf and off and has some wear on the back spine line and the spine lettering is a bit rubbed. The Book pages have come loose from the spine and the book is in dire need of some TLC and the need to be "rebound". It has a name written on the other side of the Cloth Cover "R H Morey" and Chandler, Arizona, which is crossed out and they must have moved to: Red Fork, Oklahoma is written on it.

He also wrote on the last page " R H Morey Waverly Kansas ". The First and Second Blank Pages are soiled and have some bottom edge damage on the right hand side. The next page on the left hand side has a Illustration of "The Skirt Dance ". This book is profusely illustrated with Four Hundred Illustration's including many full page black and white plates through out the Book. It is marked Munn & Co. Publishers / Scientific American Office / New York 1901.

The pages has some staining on the edges, especially near the end of the book pages. The 4th page from the end of the book is jagged on the edge just a little. There are the following pages torn: Pages (front & back) 49-50 / 51-52 (about 2") / Pages 67-68 / Pages 81-82 (small tear less than an 1") / Pages 493-394 (a little tear at bottom) / Pages 505-506 (small tear at top) / Pages 511-512 (small teeny little piece out of bottom ) / Pages 519-520 (Appendix page (tear at bottom) / Pages 523-524 (small hole tear in page about 1/4 of the way down the page) / Pages 549-550 (tiny tear at bottom of page). Some of these pages look repaired, whoever it was did a very professional job as the tears are very hard to see.

We found this book priced for over $1000.00 on some Rare Books Sites.

Item ID: RL-4275

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