THE BOY'S OWN CONJURING BOOK
Book Details + Condition: Dick & Fitzgerald (New York). Early Edition, 1860. Hardcover measuring 5.25" x 3.5". 416 pages; illustrated throughout with 200 engravings. Subtitled, "Being a complete hand-book of parlour magic; and containing as an endless variety of optical, chemical, mechanical, magnetical, and magical experiments, amusing transmutations, astonishing sleights and subtleties, celebrated card deceptions, ingenious tricks with numbers, curious and entertaining puzzles, etc." Firm binding; rubbed corners and edges; wear to boards, with darkening; chafed spine ends; fading to gilt on spine; bookplate to inside front board, with owner info to ffep; toning to pages, with occasional age spotting; interior is otherwise clean and free of markings. Wonderful bookplate depicts a magician / conjurer in a magic circle - that of George Johnson (1877-1962), British writer, publisher, collector and amateur magician. He was also editor of the Magic Wand from 1914 to 1945. Loose ex-libris of Cliff Townsend also present.
