Format: Set of twelve hand-cut and pasted silhouettes on heavy card stock, approx. 8 x 5cm each (image).

These silhouettes, likely dating from the silhouette revival in the 1910s and 1920s, are a combination of portraits of men, women, and children.

Silhouettes became popular around 1790 as a fast and affordable way for people to have their portrait taken. Artists would often use a physiognotrace to take the profile of the sitter, before cutting out the details on the spot. Many were embellished with ink or gouache, and some of these examples show quick ink additions for a more dramatic profile. By the 1840s photography was becoming the dominant form of portraiture, but the silhouette never really left – it saw a revival with the arts and crafts movement of the early 20th century and continues to be a fascination of early portraiture.

Three sets of twelve are available – all images slightly different. Please inquire for more information.

Offset, creases and minor soiling to backing cards. Some cards have painted or letterpress letters verso.

Author: Strachan, Francoise (ed).

Publisher: London: The Aquarian Press.

Format: Softcover octavo, illustrated wrappers, 180pp, 18 x 10.8cm.

Scarce London directory for occult, mystical, or religious orders and groups, qabalism, ceremonial magic, witchcraft, flying saucers, talismanic magic, and ‘unusual contacts’: such as that of Reverend J.C. Neil-Smith M.A., St. Savior’s Vicarage, 2 Eton Rd, Hampstead, London, who can provide an exorcism “if you think that you are actually possessed by a demon and sincerely need help.”

Minor creases and indents to wrappers. Previous owner’s annotation in ink on half-title.

Author: Drury, Nevill.

Publisher: Sydney: William Collins.

Format: Hardcover octavo with dust jacket, purple cloth boards and gilt title to spine, 154pp, 24 x 15cm.

First edition. Biography of Rosaleen “Roie” Norton (NZ/Australian, 1917–1979), the notorious and eccentric practitioner of witchcraft who came to be known as “the Witch of Kings Cross.”

Original plastic coating of dust jacket crinkled and discoloured, with some chips to edges. Bumping to corners with minor foxing to fore edges.

Author: Pearson, Nigel G.

Publisher: London: Troy Books.

Format: Hardcover octavo in green cloth boards and gilt decoration, signed by Pearson in ink on ‘Medicine’ title page, 65 + 125pp, 19.2 x 12cm.

First edition, signed by author. “Double-fronted” two books in one.

A Folk Medicine Herbal presents medicinal herbal information and recipes as passed on to the author by a family of witches from Sussex, England, in the 1980s.

A Folk Magic Herbal takes the exact same plants that are given in the first section of the work and have been given their “traditional, magical usages” by the author, who notes “This information was not included in the original notes I received from the family of witches, so I have no way of knowing how they utilised herbs for their magical practice, or indeed if they even did. However, I feel that this information should be included in a book of this type and have therefore endeavoured to fill this omission with the traditional folk-magical uses of the herbs previously described medicinally.”

Very minor cocking to spine, slight scuff to boards, light marks to dedication page from the inclusion of three dried four-leaf clovers.

Author: Baker, Roger.

Publisher: New York: Hawthorn Books.

Format: Hardcover octavo in unclipped illustrated dust jacket, 187pp, 21 x 13.6cm.

First US edition. Roger Baker explains rituals, discusses the relationship between exorcism and psychiatry, recounts the vivid personal testimonies of priests, psychiatrists, exorcists, and the exorcised and, in conclusion, sifts and balances the evidence he has amassed to present a modern rationale of exorcism.

Chips to corners of dust jacket.

Author: Shakespeare, William.

Publisher: London: William Heinemann.

Format: Hardcover quarto, blue cloth boards with gilt decoration and text on front and spine, top edge tinted, 170pp + 40 tipped-in colour plates with tissue guards, 25.9 x 19cm.

First edition thus.

Scuffing and rubbing to boards, previous owner’s ink annotation to flyleaf, slight foxing throughout and offset from plates, two tissue guards loose and one plate [p.22] with a tear across the top.

Author: Dickens, Charles.

Publisher: London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Format: Hardcover octavo in red cloth boards, decorated embossed cover and gilt text on spine, 137pp + 7 tipped-in colour plates, frontispiece with tissue guard, 20.6 x 15.5cm.

First edition thus. The Chimes is a novella by Charles Dickens (English, 1812–1870), first published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol. It is the second in his series of five Christmas novellas with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840s.

Fading and scuffing to spine and rear corner, foxing throughout, offset on pages opposite plates.

Author: Dickens, Charles.

Publisher: London: William Heinemann. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co.

Format: Hardcover octavo in green decorated cloth boards, illustrated endpapers, 147pp + eleven [of 12] tipped-in colour plates with tissue guards and 20 black & white illustrations throughout text, 20.6 x 15cm.

First edition thus. Lacking one colour plate intended to sit opposite p.114.

Insect damage to cover and upper left edge of prelim pages, hinge slightly cocked, minor foxing throughout.

Author: Philips, Ambrose.

Publisher: London: The Nonesuch Press.

Format: Hardcover octavo with decorated cloth boards, deckled edges, “Peter Dangar” ex-libris on pastedown, annotated number “692” in ink [of 1000 copies], 37pp + several pages of illustrations, 24 x 15.1cm.

First edition. Title continues “With the first eclogue and the imitation.” Introduction by Geoffrey Keynes, with an envelope at rear containing 17 sheets of electrotype reproduced woodblocks.

In his introduction Keynes notes that although Blake had never engraved on wood before, the illustrations he was commissioned to make for Robert John Thornton’s Pastorals of Virgil are “in nearly all respects the most completely satisfying woodcuts ever executed, and yet Blake did not ever again choose to make any engravings in the same medium.” This book reproduces for the first time the whole series of woodcuts, two sheets of proofs, and sixteen of the original drawings.

Minor foxing to boards.

Author: Crawhall, Joseph II.

Publisher: London. Leadenhalle Press.

Format: Softcover oblong octavo, saddle stitched, woodcut wrappers and illustrations throughout, 21pp + 3pp ads, 19.5 x 23cm

First edition. Charming, naïve woodcut illustrations by Joseph Crawhall II (British, 1821–1896) for “all you book-loving chubbies [children].”

Chips, tears and creases to edges, paper loss to centre left wrapper, postage stamp and ink notations on rear wrapper, slight foxing and soiling.