Oldest Trick in the Book by Bob Read: Volker Huber: 2014: oversized must have book for any serous Magic Library

Bob Read spent much of his life amassing the world’s largest collection of historical illustrations of the cups and balls: woodcuts, lithographs, oil paintings, and drawings, nearly 1,500 in total, each catching a magician mid-performance. The works in this collection cover an incredible span of time and geography with items from France, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Sweden, Belgium and the United States, some dating back as early as the 1400s. Taken together, these images form a composite history of the cups and balls as seen through the public eye.

Mr. Read’s entire collection is being released in the book, The Oldest Trick in the Book: a Compendium about the Cups and Balls in Graphic Arts. Published by Edition Volker Huber, Hieronymus Bosch-Stiftung, this hardcover book has 270 pages and is filled with beautiful, full-color illustrations. Only 300 copies were sold in total with only 100 distributed in the United States.

This is brand new never opened still in the manufacturers wrap! I removed it from the transport packaging to photograph.

Estimate $300-500