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Literature of Legerdemain

Sat, Feb 28, 2026 11:00AM EST
  2026-02-28 11:00:00 2026-02-28 11:00:00 America/New_York Potter & Potter Auctions Potter & Potter Auctions : Literature of Legerdemain https://auction.potterauctions.com/auctions/potter-potter/literature-of-legerdemain-22201
Featuring the collection of magic bibliographer Stephen Forrester, this premier sale will feature highlights from his library of rare, old, and unusual conjuring books from the seventeenth century to the present day. Purchase Catalog
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Lot 12

LA CHAPELLE, Jean Baptiste de (ca. 1710–92). Le Ventriloque...

Estimate: $800 - $1,200
Starting Bid
$400

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LA CHAPELLE, Jean Baptiste de (ca. 1710–92). Le Ventriloque, Our L’Engastrimythe…. London, De l’Etanville and Paris: Widow Duchesne, 1772. Two volumes continuously paginated, full mottled calf, well-worn spine tooled gilt with rubbed roan spine label. Title ornaments, head-pieces and typographic ornaments. 12mo. Rounded corners. Rebacked. Text generally clean and bright but marginally wormed (not affecting any text – margins wide); very good. See Fechner pp. 310. Widely regarded as the first published work on ventriloquism, the books include stories of its use and descriptions of “belly talk” technique.

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