Beschreibung:

(Blow Books)A group of 24 late 19th- and early 20th-ccentury Blow Books Generally without title-pages, various places and printers, various formats and conditions. Grimoire ou le mystérieux livre d'images. France, ?late 19th century. 38 leaves (152 x 89 mm) comprising chromolithographs of caricatures, juvenile pastimes, farm and wild animals, and black-and-white printed music, abcdaries, and silhouetted people; browned, many leaves brittle and frayed. Red pictorial wrappers; very worn, disbound. — Le livre magique tombé de al lune 1500 avant la creation du monde. Metz: Gangel & P. Didion 1868. 2 title pages and 64 leaves (302 x 133 mm) printed in color and black-and-white comprising characters from the Commedia dell'Arte, flowers, silhouetted acrobats, performers with monkeys and a dancing bear, soldiers, birds, finely dressed ladies and gentlemen, etc. Pale green and coral pictorial wrappers, spine lightly abraded. — Another copy. Metz: Gangel & P. Didion 1870. A little foxing and toning. Tan and green pictorial wrappers; minor losses to spine. (Ricky Jay, Magic Magic Book, pp. 38–30) — [The Enchanted Album]. [London: E. Wallis, ca. 1840]. 61 leaves (203 x 140 mm) comprising a windmill, camel, evil clown, owl, roses, butterflies, a woman in country dress with a fan, head of a giant gap-toothed boy, a boy in a cap and Eton jacket (Ricky Jay, Magic Magic Book, pp. 47–49); incomplete, a few fore-edges dust-soiled. Disbound, lacking wrappers. — 2 variant copies of a diminutive blow book, [?Germany, late 19th to early 20th century]. Each with 24 chromolithographed leaves (146 x 89 mm), comprising jesters, silhouetted figures, stamp collections, a montage of household items, caricatures of a outdoorsmen, abcdaries, performers, Puss and Boots and an Elephant-headed gentleman, etc.; browned and brittle. Blue pictorial wrappers of a wizard in Arab dress, instructions printed in English and German on inside panels; spines abraded. Housed in a sturdy card album. —Another copy with variant wrappers. [Germany, ca. 1880s or 1890s]. 24 leaves (146 x 86 mm). Red pictorial wrappers of wizard in traditional dress conjuring cards from an urn and a snake from a basket, titled Magic Book. Bilder-Zauberei. Lower wrapper detached. — Bilder-Zaubereien. [Germany, ca. 1880s]. 40 leaves (156 x 105 mm) comprising chromolithographed Celtic entrelacs, silhouettes, stamp collections, caricatures (some heightened with gum arabic). Red and black pictorial wrappers depicting a wizard juggling images from the magic book; rebacked with a cloth spine, upper panel chipped. Accompanied by the gilt-stamped patterned black boards of another Bilder-Zauberei. — Magic Book. Bilder-Zauberei. [Germany, ca. 1880s]. 28 leaves (140 x 95 mm) comprising chromolithographed caricatures, silhouettes, vignettes from Grimm's fairy tales, musical scores, abcdaries, wild and domestic animals, etc. Copy 1: Grey wrappers with wizard juggling images printed in pink tones; upper wrapper and first leaf detached. Copy 2: Images printed on glossy paper; colors rather faded and tinged yellow. Identical wrappers. — Magic Picture Book [cover title]. Philadelphia: N. Snellenburg & Co., ca. 1880. Copy 1: 36 leaves (159 x 108 mm), comprising instructions in English and German, chromolithographed prints of entrelacs, birds, silhouettes, a pig-snouted officer and donkey-headed gent, montage of miscellaneous items, a well-dressed woman and hobo, domestic and wild animals, interspersed with 2-page advertisements for Snellenburg's clothing. Red pictorial wrappers featuring a wizard on the front and Snellenburg's stores on the rear; upper wrapper cracked in two, lower wrapper detached. Copy 2: 35 (of 36 leaves) lacking final leaf, penultimate leave torn on lower margin. Lacks wrappers. (Ricky Jay, Magic Magic Book, pp. 62–64 and illus. p. 51). — and a collection 11 others, comprising 8 British works (England, 1970-80s) and 2 Magic Picture Albums. Germany and New York, [1880s], and one additional Bil