Dice: Deception, Fate, and Rotten Luck [signed by both]

Ricky Jay (signed) ; Rosamond Wolff Purcell (signed)

ISBN 10: 0971454817 / ISBN 13: 9780971454811

Published by Quantuck Lane Pr & the Mill rd, 2003

About this Item

Hardcover with DJ. Square format little picture book. Bound in black bookcloth with gold lettering on the spine. Glossy pictorial DJ with lettering in yellow. Excellent condition (both book and DJ). First edition with complete number line. 63 pages, with color photographs by Purcell of dice from Ricky Jay's collection of magical ephemera, cards, dice, and entertainment memorabilia. Jay's essays on the history and use of dice. Signed by both on a photo on the page before the title page. Purcell signs plainly in blue ink. Jay with a more calligraphic flourish, and a thicker pen. Please email with questions or to request photos. If there is a photo beside this listing, be aware that it's an ABE Stock Photo (whatever that means) and that it might not match this book.

Seller Inventory # V-51

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Dice: Deception, Fate, and Rotten Luck [signed by both]
• Publisher: Quantuck Lane Pr & the Mill rd
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0971454817
• ISBN 13: 9780971454811
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Signed

About this title

Synopsis

Plato said God invented dice. This we learn from one of Ricky Jay's fascinating essays in a delightful small volume that takes us from the earliest forms (astragalithe heel bones of hoofed quadrupeds, four of whose six sides were used for gaming) to the myriad types of "loading" and other means of cheating with dice in the modern era. Along the way we discover that Augustus, Caligula, and Nero were all inveterate players, that Queen Elizabeth issued a search and seizure order against the manufacture of false dice in 1598, and that dice made from celluloid, invented in 1869, remained stable for decades, and thenin a flashbegan to decompose. These are the dice of Rosamond Purcell's luminous and seductive photographs, images which transform entropy to an art form. Jay and Purcell give us a dual meditation on dice that will educate us and amuse us at the same time. 13 color photographs.

About the Author

Ricky Jay is perhaps best known as a sleight-of-hand performer whose one-man display of talent set a record as the fastest selling show in off-Broadway history. He is also an actor, a scholar, and the author of highly popular books including the best-selling Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women and, most recently, Jay's Journal of Anomalies. Rosamond Wolff Purcell's beautiful photographs of the strange and unusual have appeared in countless publications and have been collected in museums throughout the world. Among her many books are Special Cases: Natural Anomalies and Historical Monsters, Finders Keepers: Eight Collectors, and Crossing Over: Where Art and Science Meet, the latter two with Stephen Jay Gould.