Le Livre Magique Tombé De La Lune 1500 Ans Avant La Création Du Monde et Retrouvé en 1870 Chez Mm. Gangel Et P. Didion. Fabricants d'Images à Metz. Se Trouve Dans Toutes Les Librairies et Papeteries de France

Didion, P.

Verlag: Metz, [France]: M.M. Gangel et P. Didion, [ca. 1870]

8vo (7.8" x 5.25"), printed red, green, and blue pictorial paper wrappers. Title leaf, 114 wood engraved plates, 102 hand colored and 12 b&w. CONDITION: Very good, rebacked with green paper, some chips to edge of upper wrapper, faint foxing and offsetting throughout. A rare and charming French "blow book" or trick book consisting of nine alternating scenes, eight of which are hand-colored. Each scene in this volume comprises two plates facing each other: two young women and a girl opposite two men (one blowing smoke into the other's face); a large-headed dandy facing a similarly bobble-headed woman, holding a bouquet with two small children behind her; a man with performing monkeys, and another (with a rather terrified expression) with a muzzled, dancing bear; Punchinello vis-à-vis a harlequin, both with frolicking children in tow; a French versus a Middle Eastern soldier, both with long rifles; silhouettes of performing acrobats, facing those of demons and dragons; a castle and a church; two flower arrangements; two sets of birds in a tree, and two intentionally blank pages, which would "create the illusion that the images have vanished from the book entirely" (Aikenhead). Each iteration of a set, except for the black and white demons and acrobats, is differently colored, providing variety-and an early cinematic effect-when shown in quick succession. The Met offers a succinct description of how such trick volumes work: Staggered and subtle tabs are cut along the fore edge of the volume, corresponding to the pattern of repeating images, so that the performer can selectively flip through the book's leaves to create the illusion that the same image appears on all of its pages. By moving the thumb's location to a different tab or turning the volume upside down, while simultaneously blowing on the book to distract the audience, the performer can then flip through the book again, revealing entirely different images on the visible pages. This action gives the appearance that the book's contents have been transformed. This can be repeated again and again, until all the different images have been revealed. Ricky Jay discusses this "whimsically entitled" work, which translates to "The Magic Book : Fallen from the Moon 1500 Years Before the Creation of the World and Discovered by Messrs. Gangel and Didion," in his Magic Magic Book: An Inquiry into the Venerable History & Operation of the Oldest Trick Conjuring Volumes, Designated 'Blow Books', calling it a "classic blow book." The year of its "discovery" changed with each successive year of its publication. A delightful magic book by popular French printers Gangel and Didion. REFERENCES: Aikenhead, Lydia. "The Transforming Book : Conservation of a 'Blow Book'" at The Met online; Jay, Ricky. Magic Magic Book: An Inquiry into the Venerable History & Operation of the Oldest Trick Conjuring Volumes, Designated 'Blow Books' (1994). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 6396

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Le Livre Magique Tombé De La Lune 1500 Ans ...
Verlag: Metz, [France]: M.M. Gangel et P. Didion, [ca. 1870]
Einband: Softcover