WITGEEST, Simon.
Het nieuw vermeerdert natuurlyck tover-boeck of speel-toneel der konsten.
Amsterdam, Jan ten Hoorn (title-page: sold in Brussels by Emanuel de Grieck), 1715. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece by the artist-engraver [Jacob] Harrewijn, title-page in red and black, many full-page woodcut plates and numerous woodcut illustrations in text. Contemporary calf with ornamental flowers on spine. [50], 518 pp.
€ 1,500
Easily the most popular Dutch conjuring and recreation book of the 18th century. On long winter evenings families and parties amused themselves with the help of the book, trying the various tricks and games. It contains about 2000 conjuring tricks, card games, exciting experiments with all sorts of materials, word and number games, riddles, etc. It also includes advice on drawing and colouring, on cosmetics, means of curing a pain, of making perfumed soaps, removing stains, etc. Reprinted for over a century the book continued amusing generations of children as well as adults in the home and at parties. Landwehr ascribes the book to Willem Goeree, who first published it at Middelburg in 1679. Goeree probably choose the pseudonym Witgeest (White spirit) as a guarantee that the book contained only white magic, not black magic. Its advice on drawing and colouring was taken from Goeree's Inleydinge tot de algemeene teyken-konst.
Lacks title label on spine, otherwise a good copy. Muller 555; De Vries 528-529; see also: J. Landwehr, De Nederlander uit en thuis, p. 148 ff.
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