| hb |
Raphael [= Cross, Robert Thomas] |
Raphael’s Pythoness of the East; Or, Complete Key to Futurity. Translated from the original MS. of the celebrated Mystical Divining Book, formerly in the possession of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Josephine |
1st thus |
W. Foulsham & Co. Ltd., 4 Pilgrim Street, Ludgate Hill, London |
1894 |
£225 |
Dated 1894 in print to the title page, marking it out as the genuine first impression of Cross’s edition of this book, which was originally published in very limited numbers in the 1830s but is unobtainably scarce thus |
ASSOCIATION COPY. Original small-format orange-brown cloth with decorative bordering to upper and lower margins of front board and spine, floral print to rear board and further decorative illustration to spine, as issued. Rubbing to foot of spine, with some erosion of cloth, and to parts of top; moderate rubbing to outer corners of board; but in vgc for age. This copy formerly in the possession of notable American astrologer Ella N. Woods, an early teacher of astrology to Marc Edmund Jones, and bearing her bookplate with address in Hollywood, Calif. to front paste-down. Front inner paper hinge intact; rear hinge with just 1 cm tear in paper at foot, otherwise intact. Internally an excellent copy, complete with the two rarely-surviving leaves of perforated-edged ‘Cards to be used with Raphael’s Pythoness’, bound in after p. iv, which are unmarked and still attached at the perforations. Traces of toning to some endpapers and to upper and lower portions of title page. Hand-pencilled bookseller inventory number to rear free endpaper, but no permanent markings or other faults found. Overall, an excellent copy of this Gann list title for its age, made more significant by its manifest history of ownership by an important early American astrologer. |
