FLIP BOOK, BLOW BOOK, MAGIC BOOK. Le Livre Magique.

FRANCE, no date, circa 1799.. NO TITLE or PUBLISHING DETAILS, PAPER HAS WATER MARKS, SEVERAL WITH "MONTG" on 1 PAGE and "LFIER" ON THE FOLLOWING PAGE ( Montg(o)lfier)? and several with a few capital letters not making any recognisable word, approximately 170 x 120 mm, 6½ x 4¾ inches, 84 hand coloured plates, some with French captions beneath, fore-edges stepped and notched as issued, original marbled wrappers. LACKS INSTRUCTION SLIP (probably many slips are missing, once the conjurer had mastered the trick, he wanted to keep the trick secret), small repair to bottom of spine, covers slightly worn at edges, corners worn with slight loss to tips (see attached images), occasional small pale brown spot to blank margins, edges and a few corners of plates slightly dusty, a few other tiny marks, otherwise a very good copy. 7 subjects each with 12 plates, the changes are: Harlequin; Le Pere; l'Abbe; Soldat; Flowers; La Mere; Playing Cards. The earliest description of the blow book appeared in Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft 1584, he emphasized that the blow book was not a common device among magicians, Scot included the tantalizing information that a certain Clarvis was the inventor of the blow book and most skillful at its display. The conjuror holds the book by its spine in his left hand so that it faces the audience and flips through it with the thumb and fore-fingers of his right hand. He first does this using the lowest tabs and the book appears to be entirely blank. He then magically changes it (perhaps by blowing on it, tapping it, or saying magic words) and flips through it using the next tab. Now every page shows a Harlequin, he continues with the next tabs to reveal Playing Cards etc. He then turns the book upside down and flips through in the same way. Again the book first appears to be blank, then shows Soldat etc,. See: Barbara Maria Stafford and Frances Terpak, Devices of Wonder, pages 252-255, for interesting information on the blow book; Gumuchian, Les Livres de L'Enfance du xv au xix Siecle, pages 276-277, No. 3843-3850; MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.