(Hocus Pocus) | A bibliographically curious exemplar of a popular magic book

(Hocus Pocus)

The Old Hocus Pocus: Being the Anatomy of Legerdemain, or the Whole Art of Jugling … The Fourteenth Edition. London: Printed for A. Bettsworth and G. Hitch; R. Ware; J. Osborn; and J. Hodges, [ca. 1739]

12mo (140 x 95 mm). Woodcut illustration of Hiccius Doctius on title-page, approximately 30 woodcut text illustrations and diagrams, woodcut headpiece and initial; title-page and verso of terminal leaf age-darkened, moderate browning, fore-edges tender and a little frayed throughout, a few marginal tears, occasionally touching text lines with some loss in last 3 lines of E5, lacks initial and terminal leaves [?blanks]. Nineteenth-century half calf over maroon pebbled cloth; worn, rebacked. Linen folding-case.

A rare example of this popular text with an inscription proving the publication date to be 1739 or earlier, as opposed to 1740 conjectured by ESTC (listing only one copy at the Bodleian library): "Thomas Wallford | His Book | the old hocus and | pocus being the | Anatomy of legerdemain | or the whole art of | Jugling | September 21 | 1739."

Scarce: Worldcat lists no copies, but apparently Brown University holds three, including H. Adrian Smith's copy, cited by Toole Stott with the curious collation of A³ B–M⁶ N⁴ (144 pages as opposed to 135 pages in the present copy whose collation agrees with that of ESTC).

REFERENCE:

ESTC T196556 (dated [?1740]); Exemplars, p. 82; Toole Stott 371 (dated c. 1708)

PROVENANCE:

Thomas Wallford (contemporary inscription on title-page verso dated 21 September 1739)