Ramsay, W. | Magic tricks, ventriloquism, knives, coins, ropes, cups and balls

Ramsay, W.

The Conjurer's Magazine of Secrets in Legerdemain & Slight of Hand … London: Printed by and For Hodson & Co., [1824]

8vo (191 x 102 mm, uncut). Handcolored engraved folding frontispiece; frontispiece offset to title-page, browned throughout. Dark blue wrappers.

First and only edition. A booklet of magic tricks, with some references to earlier practitioners such as Pinchbeck and his sapient pig, and Matthew Büchinger. However, some of the tricks are rather questionable: one requires a nail to be driven through the head of a chicken, another is intended to bewilder a cat by tying a bell "somewhat hard" to its tail.

REFERENCE:

Toole Stott 588 (no date provided)