Decremps, Henri | Scathing exposé of famed magician Giuseppe Pinetti's tricks

Decremps, Henri

La Magie blanche dévoilée, ou, explication des tours surprennant — Supplément à la magie blanche dévoilée. Paris Chez Langlois Libraire et l'Auteur; Chez l'Auteur et les Librarires qui vendent les nouveautés, 1784–1785

2 works in one volume, 8vo (197 x 127 mm). Engraved frontispiece and title-page in each work, woodcut head- and tailpieces, one woodcut diagram in the first work several woodcut illustrations in the second, followed by 4 engraved plates; scorch mark on S2 in first work. Contemporary French mottled calf, smooth spine gilt, morocco lettering-piece, marbled endpapers, edges tinted red; board edges a bit knocked, minor loss to spine head, bookplate evidently removed from front pastedown, front free endpaper partially detached.  

Decremps wrote and published this series of books purportedly to expose all the tricks of Giuseppe Pinetti. The first book, La Magie blanche dévoilée, appeared in Paris while Pinetti was still performing there in 1784. The first book was followed by Supplément à la magie blanche dévoilée, Both had a devastating effect on Pinetti's reputation as well as on other practitioners of the mystic art, despite the fact that Decremp's explanations were largely guesswork.

Pinetti was considered to be one of the major figures of eighteenth-century magic. In his "cabinet of curiosities" theater show, he presented and mixed scientific experiments and magic tricks. He is said to be the first recorded performer to do the Blooming Mechanical Orange Bush and the Thumb Tie escape.

REFERENCE:

D. Price. Magic, 1985, p. 40 ff.

PROVENANCE:

Bibl. Coll. S.F. Xaverii Venetensis (ticket on front pastedown)