$550
Hoffmann, Professor. Modern Magic. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1876. First edition, first state (black hat, gold cone). Red cloth stamped in black and gold. Engraved frontispiece. With 318 illustrations. Thick 8vo. Rebacked, cloth significantly worn, new endpapers, contents sound. Toole-Stott 386. An unabashed literary success, this, the first printing of Modern Magic, sold out – to the great surprise of the author and his publisher – some six weeks after its initial publication. The substantial success of this book (and the nature of its content, as it was the first book to reveal “professional” secrets of a type) ushered in a new era in conjuring literature that flourished for over a century. Only 2,000 copies of the first edition were printed, and few have survived. This is one of those books.
Auctioneer:
Potter & Potter
Date:
2013-02-02
