ILLUSTRATED CLOTH BINDING Conjurer Dick; or The Adventures of a Young Wizard

Green bevel-edged boards with four-colour depiction of the conjurer at work. Small puncture to spine; rubbing to extremities and light staining to upper cover. Floral endpapers with ‘Wilsden Board School’ prize bookplate dated to 1891; 8 pages of preliminaries, heavily foxed with frontispiece and title page vignette; text foxed to early gatherings; slightly musty smell; 8 pages of adverts at the end, soiling to these leaves. Despite its faults the book is complete and presents very attractively. Unlike the first edition this copy has Angelo Lewis’s name on the title page.

Professor Hoffmann (1839-1919), actually the barrister Angelo Lewis, has been described ‘the most prolific and influential magic author and translator until modern times’. Certainly the sub-title ‘Adventures of a Young Wizard’ has a familiar ring to it.