(Hocus Pocus) | Sleight of hand and other magic tricks

(Hocus Pocus)

Henry Dean. The Whole Art of Legerdemain, or, Hocus Pocus in Perfection … The Twelth Edition. London: Printed & Sold by J. Hollis, [ca. 1800]

12mo (159 x 81 cm), Woodcut frontispiece, approximately 30 woodcut text illustrations. Contemporary marbled boards; rebacked.

The stated twelfth edition, corrected and improved with an entire new set of cuts. Approximate date of publication comes from Toole Stott. According to Toole Stott, Dean's work is founded on Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft (see lots 542-544). After a lengthy disquisition, Toole Stott concludes that the identity of Henry Dean remains a matter of conjecture (see Toole Stott 199).

REFERENCE:

Toole Stott 221 (locating only two copies: one at the University of London, the other being the H. Adrian Smith copy, now part of the Smith Magic Collection at Brown University); not in ESTC