THE LURE AND ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY
Book Details + Condition: George G. Harrap & Company (London). Very scarce First Edition, 1932. Hardcover. 249 pages. Original cloth with titling and gilt embellishments to spine, frontis, black-and-white illustrations, index. This is one of the better researched and illustrated popular histories of alchemy. Its author, C.J.S. Thompson (1862-1943), was in charge of acquisitions for Henry Wellcome, and thus had access to what would become the library of the Wellcome Institute, one of the great collections of medical, alchemical, and related books and manuscripts in the world. A very good copy of a highly scarce first edition, with tight binding; lightly rubbed corners and edges and minor general shelf wear to boards; interior is clean and free of markings.
