Indian Conjuring

London: George Routledge & Sons and New York: E. P. Dutton, (1922). Pictorial paper-covered boards, 12mo, 103pp. No date; page 88 mentions and offer "good for five years from 1922," the presumed publication date. Very Good with rubbing to extremities and shallow chipping at the corners. Offsetting to endpapers; textblock clean and crisp. With 7 of 8 plates called for (the "Egg Bag Trick" has disappeared!) and many in-text illustrations, including nice trick diagrams.

Major Lionel Hugh Branson (1879 - 1946) was an officer in the British Indian Army and magician known as "Elbiquet." Indian Conjuring was the first book published under his own name, proudly celebrating his "Rope Trick," which he boasts amazed Shah Mohommed and the "itinerant conjurers" whose tricks he explores in the book. Branson was so confident the rope trick was his invention, he offered a reward to anyone who could prove it had been performed before him.