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Victorian ghosts 👻

BROWN, J. H. Spectropia; or, Surprising Spectral Illusions. Showing Ghosts Everywhere, and of Any Colour.

London: Griffith & Farran, successor to Newbery and Harris, Corner of St. Paul’s Churchyard; H. & C. Treacher, Brighton, 1865. Fourth edition. 9.75” x 7.75”, xvi + 11pp with sixteen illustrations, of which thirteen are hand-colored. Original blue pictorial boards printed in black and gilt with the striking specter design to front cover, publisher’s advertisements to rear board, red cloth spine. Boards rubbed with some edgewear and corner wear, two small losses to rear panel as issued in auction description, title page with a small closed tear professionally repaired with archival tape, a few light creases to boards, and general handling wear. Internally clean and bright with the hand-colored plates unusually vivid and highly displayable. A Very Good- copy of a notoriously fragile Victorian novelty book.

One of the great Victorian optical curiosity books, Spectropia was designed as both entertainment and demonstration: by staring at the brightly colored plates and then shifting one’s gaze to a blank surface, the viewer would produce vivid “ghosts” and spectral after-images. Brown uses the popular fascination with séances and spirit photography to debunk spiritualist claims, showing that many apparitions could be explained through ordinary visual effects rather than the supernatural. The result is an unusually successful blend of popular science, parlor amusement, and gothic visual theater, made all the more memorable by its spectacular title and pictorial binding. Copies are heavily sought by collectors of occult material, Victorian popular science, optical illusion books, and striking publisher’s bindings.

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CLERKE, Agnes M. The System of the Stars

London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1890. First edition. 8.75” x 5.5”, xix + 424pp with 6 illustrated plates and 50 woodcuts. Finely bound in contemporary full dark green prize calf for the Convent of Notre Dame, Northampton, with elaborate gilt spine decoration, red morocco spine label, marbled edges and endpapers, and the school’s gilt armorial device stamped prominently to upper board. Multiple ex libris markings to the half title. Light rubbing at joints and extremities, some wear at spine ends and corners, occasional mild foxing, but internally clean and sound, the folding frontispiece crisp and complete. A handsome and well-preserved prize binding. Very Good.

Agnes Mary Clerke’s major work of popular astronomy, issued the same year as her celebrated History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century, surveying stellar classification, variable and temporary stars, nebulae, star clusters, and the emerging astrophysical understanding of the universe at the close of the nineteenth century. Clerke was among the most important scientific writers of her generation and one of the foremost interpreters of modern astronomy for the educated public. In this elegant institutional prize binding, the book remains both a substantial scientific first edition and a striking example of late Victorian academic presentation binding.