Wresch Dick (3 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Very good in card wraps with minor rubbing and soiling, and light crease to lower right corner of front cover. Interior bright and clean with exception of tiny soil spot at bottom edge of pages 19-26. Forty pages with black and white photos of handcuffs and related restraints originally owned by Houdini; Wresch acquired the collection in 1954, and at the time it was considered "the greatest handcuff and leg-iron collection in the world." Very scarce.

Stapled Soft Cover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition / First Printing. Minor edge and corner wear; lightly scuffed and scratched; some toning to the front and rear of the wrapper; some shelf wear; light crease in the upper corner of the front of the wrapper and in the lower portion of the tail of the spine as well; overall a very crisp and clean collectible FIRST EDITION! Extremely rare and out-of-print! Pictorial wrapper with green lettering showing Harry Houdini in shackles and cuffs on the front and rear in black and white. 40 unmarked and uncreased historical pages nicely enhanced by black and white photographs and illustrations! Very very scarce and hard-to-find FIRST EDITION! Prolificly illustrated and wonderfully well-preserved! "Harry Houdini, the greatest escape artist the world has ever known and the idol of small boys of two continents, was born Ehrich Weiss in Appleton, Wisconsin, on April 6, 1874. He was the fifth child of Dr. and Mrs. Mayer Samuel Weiss. The story of the amazing feats of this 'Handcuff King', as the world styled him, would require many books. Suffice it to say that Houdini became the talk of continents. No jails could confine him nor were there any handcuffs, shackles, or strait-jackets from which he could not free himself. Police and prison officials were glad he had not decided on a life of crime, for as a criminal he would have been difficult to catch and impossible to hold." Prolificly illustrated and wonderfully well-preserved. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Soft cover. Condition: Good. BC01B Original 1961 printing. Some light soiling from handling to covers. Interior bright and clean, free of writing or marks. Light cream wraps with blue-gray lettering. A picture of Houdini chained and manacled on the both covers. Very rare and out-of-print. 40 pages of B&W photos and illustrations. This privately published book is another classic, the first to present good photographs of handcuffs and related restraints. Dick Wresch was lock smith who managed to buy a collection of restraints owned by Houdini. Each item is very nicely illustrated, but unfortunately many of them are identified incorrectly. Never-the-less the book is a valuable one containing pictures of several items that are shown no where else.