Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table. A Treatise on the Science and Art of Manipulating Cards

Original illustrated front wrapper, back wrapper blank. Overall very good to fine condition with light soiling and bumping at corners of front wrapper and minor abrasion at the foreedge of the back wrapper. A very nice copy, probably a later edition printed from the original plates, of quite likely the most important book ever written on sleight-of-hand with playing cards. Erdnase is a pseudonym. The true identity of the author has been a controversy for many years. However, there have been many reprints, using the same cover art, which make pinning down the exact edition difficult. This copy was published by Frederick J. Drake & Co. in Chicago and has no date on the title page. Drake published undated reprints from the original plates until the 1930's and this is likely one of those reprints.