Black Art Pamphlets; Four works on Fortune-Telling and Mesmerism in sammelband
- Leipzig; Paris: Friedrich Boigt; Albert Berger; Chamuel etc., 1890's
Leipzig; Paris: Friedrich Boigt; Albert Berger; Chamuel etc., 1890's. 21cm. The whole bound in a functional dark brown cloth titled in white to spine. Some wear to the cloth, cosmetic fraying to spine ends and some general wear, a good, solid binding performing a practical rather than aesthetic function. A rather complex little collection, with two German pamphlets on cartomancy and fortune telling being duodecimo sized, and the two subsequent works; a German pamphlet on magnetic healing, and a French work on mesmerism, being octavo. Tight and strong, but perhaps a little unbalanced through necessity.
Contents:
1. "Wahresagekunst [The Art of Divination]...aus den Linien der Hand. Die Kunst des Karteschlagens und Träume richtig zu deuten..." Leipzig; Friedrich Boigt's Buchhandlung. [c.1880's]. Stated tenth edition.
Publisher's illustrated yellow paper wraps with a hand-colored image of an elderly woman reading cards and a woman's palm simultaneously to expressions of shock and dismay from the two respectable ladies present. Some wear to the extremities of the wraps, and the whole has been annotated and doodled on in pencil, with notes, crossings out, and astrological symbols in the margins. The paper quality is pretty appalling, and is heavily toned. Illustrated throughout with small in text engravings of palmistry guides, and with the latter half of the pamphlet instructing how to incorporate cartomancy into the divinatory process, with an extensive list of possible dream permutations and their symbolic meaning. An interesting little work that uncomfortably straddles the border of fortune telling as party trick, and as occult divinatory art, with the additional psychological foray into the interpretation of dreams and the acknowledgement of a symbolic subconscious.
2. "Das Karteshlagen oder die kunst, sich selbst und Anderen aus der Deutschen un Französischen Karte..." Leipzig; Verlag der Ernst'schen Buchhandlung. [1880's]. Publisher's grey paper wraps titled and decorated in black (with manicules!). 60pp. Some shallow scuffing and chipping to the wraps, a very good example, internally clean, with the page edges a little ragged due to some clumsy opening. Internally clean, although our pencil wielding devotee of the occult has made some small assaults into this work. Cartomancy and Cheiromancy presented as complimentary arts of divination, with colour illustrations of card types as a frontispiece and numerous interior diagrams of palm lines and potential card layouts, there also seems to be an emphasis on ambience and a certain showmanship, bringing the suggestive psychological elements back into the mix and placing the varied schools represented in this sammelband back into a sort of shambling thematic order.
3. "Die Heilmethode des Lebensmagnetismus nebst einer Untersuchung uber den Unterschied zwischen hypnotismus und heilmagnetismus von H.R. Paul Schroeder." 1895. Leipzig: Verlag von Albert Berger. Stated Third Edition. 144pp. Publisher's yellow wraps titled and decorated in black. Some soiling and light wear, pinhole of loss to the lower edge of the front wrap, and the ownership (or possibly bookseller's) ink stamp of the mesmeric practitioner himself, Herr Schroeder of Leipzig to the front cover. Internally clean, although heavily toned due to the cheapest of paper being used. A third expanded and revised edition of Schroeder's work originally published in 1890, with case notes and accounts of treatments and responses [CRABTREE 1279]. Schroeder's major contribution to the annals of mesmerism and magnetism was the 1899 publication of one of the best and most comprehensive histories of the Mesmeric phenomenon.
4. "Les états Profonds de L'Hypnose." DE ROCHAS, Albert. Paris: Chamuel. 1896. Stated Fourth Edition. Publisher's cream colored wraps titled in black and red. 119pp. Some marginal soiling and toning, mostly due to cheap paper. Internally clean. De Rochas features rarely amongst the annals of mesmerism and hypnosis, but his work was diligent and popular when published, with this particular work being a companion to the earlier work The Superficial States of Hypnosis. "The rigorous notation of the phenomena observed by the author, and the numerous citations of the experiments made by him, make this work as valuable as a document. It constitutes in addition, and outside of the occult didactic part, a bundle of indisputable proofs." [Caillet, referring to the first edition]. [82214].
Contents:
1. "Wahresagekunst [The Art of Divination]...aus den Linien der Hand. Die Kunst des Karteschlagens und Träume richtig zu deuten..." Leipzig; Friedrich Boigt's Buchhandlung. [c.1880's]. Stated tenth edition.
Publisher's illustrated yellow paper wraps with a hand-colored image of an elderly woman reading cards and a woman's palm simultaneously to expressions of shock and dismay from the two respectable ladies present. Some wear to the extremities of the wraps, and the whole has been annotated and doodled on in pencil, with notes, crossings out, and astrological symbols in the margins. The paper quality is pretty appalling, and is heavily toned. Illustrated throughout with small in text engravings of palmistry guides, and with the latter half of the pamphlet instructing how to incorporate cartomancy into the divinatory process, with an extensive list of possible dream permutations and their symbolic meaning. An interesting little work that uncomfortably straddles the border of fortune telling as party trick, and as occult divinatory art, with the additional psychological foray into the interpretation of dreams and the acknowledgement of a symbolic subconscious.
2. "Das Karteshlagen oder die kunst, sich selbst und Anderen aus der Deutschen un Französischen Karte..." Leipzig; Verlag der Ernst'schen Buchhandlung. [1880's]. Publisher's grey paper wraps titled and decorated in black (with manicules!). 60pp. Some shallow scuffing and chipping to the wraps, a very good example, internally clean, with the page edges a little ragged due to some clumsy opening. Internally clean, although our pencil wielding devotee of the occult has made some small assaults into this work. Cartomancy and Cheiromancy presented as complimentary arts of divination, with colour illustrations of card types as a frontispiece and numerous interior diagrams of palm lines and potential card layouts, there also seems to be an emphasis on ambience and a certain showmanship, bringing the suggestive psychological elements back into the mix and placing the varied schools represented in this sammelband back into a sort of shambling thematic order.
3. "Die Heilmethode des Lebensmagnetismus nebst einer Untersuchung uber den Unterschied zwischen hypnotismus und heilmagnetismus von H.R. Paul Schroeder." 1895. Leipzig: Verlag von Albert Berger. Stated Third Edition. 144pp. Publisher's yellow wraps titled and decorated in black. Some soiling and light wear, pinhole of loss to the lower edge of the front wrap, and the ownership (or possibly bookseller's) ink stamp of the mesmeric practitioner himself, Herr Schroeder of Leipzig to the front cover. Internally clean, although heavily toned due to the cheapest of paper being used. A third expanded and revised edition of Schroeder's work originally published in 1890, with case notes and accounts of treatments and responses [CRABTREE 1279]. Schroeder's major contribution to the annals of mesmerism and magnetism was the 1899 publication of one of the best and most comprehensive histories of the Mesmeric phenomenon.
4. "Les états Profonds de L'Hypnose." DE ROCHAS, Albert. Paris: Chamuel. 1896. Stated Fourth Edition. Publisher's cream colored wraps titled in black and red. 119pp. Some marginal soiling and toning, mostly due to cheap paper. Internally clean. De Rochas features rarely amongst the annals of mesmerism and hypnosis, but his work was diligent and popular when published, with this particular work being a companion to the earlier work The Superficial States of Hypnosis. "The rigorous notation of the phenomena observed by the author, and the numerous citations of the experiments made by him, make this work as valuable as a document. It constitutes in addition, and outside of the occult didactic part, a bundle of indisputable proofs." [Caillet, referring to the first edition]. [82214].