Illustrated Magic

"In this book, Ottokar Fischer…exposes hundreds of magic effects as produced by professionals, by amateurs and by the Fakirs of India. He explains the secrets of magical apparatus; illusion effects of the past and the present; feats of dexterity and skill; fakes, gimmicks and other secret accessories; vest-pocket magic, mathematical and sleight-of-hand card tricks; mind reading, clairvoyance and telepathy; illusions, the mystery of escapes from chains, handcuffs, leg and neck irons, etc.; and puzzles and their close connection with magic. With an introduction by Fulton Oursler and an unpublished chapter by the late Harry Kellar, most famous of American magicians."

Condition: Decorative, unclipped dustjacket in a protective sleeve has wear and small tears along the top and bottom with a piece missing from the top of the spine around to the back cover. Gray cloth hardbound boards with orange and black text box to the front cover and to the spine are in very good condition with only a small tear in the cloth front top corner and slight wear at the top and bottom of the back strip. Top corners have slight bumping (and the damage to the front corner) but bottom corners are sharp with no wear. Spine is straight with hinges attached to the endpapers with no cracking. Text block is solid and all pages are firmly attached. Light foxing to front and rear endpapers but interior pages are clean with no tears, chips, creases, or previous owner marks. 206 pages. Dimensions: H – 10" W – 7-1/2"

Ottokar Fischer (1873 – 1940) was an Austrian magician who beginning in 1898 managed and performed at the Kratky Baschik theatre in Vienna, a magic theatre with nearly 1,000 seats. For 12 years he performed daily with a two and a half-hour show and several times performed before the Imperial Court of Austria and for other crowned heads. He also founded his own magic shop "Wiener Kunststatte" (1914 – 1929) where he also sold Hofzinser's tricks. After World War I he retired to write a history of the art of magic completing three books in his lifetime with this book his first originally published in 1929.