LA MAGIE BLANCHE DÉVOILÉE, OU EXPLICATION DES TOURS SURPRENANS QUI FONT DEPUIS PEU L'ADMIRATION DE LA CAPITALE & DE LA PROVINCE. AVEC TOUS DES RÉFLEXIONS SUR LA BAGUETTE DIVINATOIRE, LES AUTOMATES JOUEURS D'ÉCHECS, &c. &c. . . . OUVRAGE ORNÉ DE 101 FIGURES. . . TOME PREMIER [bound with:] SUPPLÉMENT. . . CONTENANT L'EXPLICATION DE PLUSIEURS TOURS NOUVEAUX, JOUÉS DEPUIS PEU À LONDRES. AVEC DES ÉCLAIRCISSEMENS SUR LES ARTIFICES DES JOUEURS DE PROFESSION, LES CADRANS SYMPATHETIQUES, LE MOUVEMENT PERPÉTUEL, LES CHEVAUX SAVANS, LES POUPÉES PARLANTES, LES AUTOMATES DANSANS, LES VENTRILOQUES, LES SABOTS ÉLASTIQUES, &c. &c. . . . TOME SECOND [bound with:] TESTAMENT DE JEROME SHARP, PROFESSEUR DE PHYSIQUE AMUSANTE; OÙ L'ON TROUVE, PARMI PLUSIEURS TOURS DE SUBTILITÉ, QU'ON PEUT EXÉCUTER SANS AUCUNE DÉPENSE, DES PRÉCEPTES & DES EXEMPLES SUR L'ART DE FAIRE D by Decremps, [Henri] - 1792

Paris and Liège: J. F. Desoer, 1792. Hardcover. Very good. 1792 (first two volumes), 1793 (third volume). Three volumes in one. viii,118;[iii]-viii,270,[4];262pp., all volumes containing in-text illustrations, plus engraved frontispieces in first two volumes and frontispiece containing musical notation in third volume. Half title. Volume II folding tables not present, as usual. In French. Contemporary French half calf and marbled boards, spine ruled and stamped in gilt, gilt leather labels, edges red. Small contemporary inscriptions in half title and p. 118 of first volume. Binding mildy worn, leather slightly cracked near tail of spine, contents clean. Very good to near fine.

Early collected edition of the first published exposés of stage magic, after the first editions of 1784-1786. Henri Decremps (1746-1825) was a French lawyer, diplomat, and student of physics, mathematics, and music, best known for his authorship of the present works. Decremps published MAGIE BLANCHE DÉVOILÉE ("White Magic Unveiled") in 1784 at the height of Joseph Pinetti's fame as a conjurer in Paris, exposing his physical and mathematical "experiments" as tricks. Pinetti, who billed himself as the "Roman Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy," was a pioneering and vastly successful performer who brilliantly recast older illusions on an elegantly appointed stage as scientific demonstrations. He suffered a significant intial setback from Decremps's publication but adapted, writing his own AMUSEMENS PHYSIQUES the same year, correcting several of Decremps's mistakes and shedding his own "philosophical" narrative. As Pinetti's career recovered, Decremps continued his exposé with periodic attacks, most significantly in the SUPPLÉMENT and TESTAMENT included here. Among the feats Decremps explains in MAGIE BLANCHE and the SUPPLEMENT are the automaton chess player, divining rod, self-performing organ, learned horse, gambling tricks, and ventriloquism. The third volume, written under the pseudonym "Jerome Sharp," features "tricks of subtlety which can be performed without expense," such as the "art of composing impromtu songs." Caillet 2861-2862 (other editions). Hall, OLD CONJURING BOOKS. . . (London, 1972), pp. 156-157, 174.