Kuaint, Kueer & Kurious and Book of New Receipts, With Catalogue of Novelties and Wonders [wrapper title] by George Blackie & Co - [ca. 1878].

New York:: Geoorge Blackie & Co., 75 Nassau Street,, [ca. 1878].. First edition?. Soiled and worn; old drink rings (with residue of the drink) on the rear wrapper; a good, sound copy.. Small 8vo, original printed salmon wrappers, [94] pages. Illus. A trade catalogue for the cheap mail order outfit that claims it will "to oblige our customers, get anything they may want--from a boot-jack to a locomotive--guaranteeing in every instance perfect satisfaction." The variety of goods here offered is certainly no lie--one can purchase a blue steel revolver or an electrical medical kit--but Blackie's bread and butter would seem to be cheap and/or sensational books (how-to books on ventriloquism, the practical clairvoyant, sparring in theory and practice, the black arts of sorcery, cheap cook books, etc.), and also such cheap novelties as sentimental chromos, "the Mysterious Planchette" (a species of Ouija Board), P. T. Barnum brand elastic straps and buckles (for pants, vests, and drawers), a better mousetrap, numerous magic tricks for cards and other props, and perhaps the chiefest boon to mankind--the hard rubber cravat ("For simplicity, cheapness, and durability it is unrivaled"). OCLC notes scattered holdings for editions of 64 pages, 94 pages and 96 pages, all undated and all with speculative publication dates of ca. 1870 or ca. 1874; publication date here assigned from a woodcut for a "coin casket" that displays an 1878 quarter.