[LACOMBE, Jacques]. Dictionnaire Encyclopedique Des Amusements Des Sciences, Mathematiques et Physiques. Paris: Chez Panckoucke, 1792. Two volumes in contemporary (or perhaps original) well-worn paper boards; V1 text, V2 engraved plates, including many fine images depicting automata, sleight-of-hand tricks, and other deceptions. Manuscript spine labels, manuscript table of contents to front of V2. 4tos. Shelfworn, but contents generally clean and attractive. A handsome example in a period binding of the work that it is said influenced Robert-Houdin to become a magician.In Robert-Houdin's memoirs, his accidental discovery of this work was discussed: ?I went into a bookseller's shop to buy [a treatise on clockmaking] ? the tradesman ? took down two volumes from the shelves and handed them to me without ceremony. On returning home, I sat down to peruse my treatise, but judge of my surprise when I read on the back of one of the volumes Scientific Amusements. ? Fascinated ? I devoured the mysteries of these pages, and the further my reading advanced, the more I saw laid bare before me the secrets of an art for which I was unconsciously predestined."