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This is from a Private Estate in Good Condition. The hardcover book is in great shape with only yellow aging around the pages. The dust jacket is faded and worn over time and normal wear and tear around the top edges from storage.

First Edition 1948

George G. Kaplan, a leading New York accountant, is not only a wizard with figures but a skilled magician whose feats are as bewildering to professional conjurers as to mere laymen. For some twenty years, he has been perfecting old tricks and inventing new ones, and in hundreds of performances has demonstrated the soundness of his mysteries and their astounding effect upon all kinds of audiences. At the urging of his friend, Jean Hugard, the veteran magician and writer on magic, Mr Kaplan finally agreed to make many of his choicest secrets available in print, for the use of other performers. The result is The Fine Art of Magic.

This most unusual work, with its 24 conjuring “methods” and 80 complete tricks, constitutes an invaluable collection of original lessons in magic. there is magic with cards, coins, balls, handkerchiefs, cigarettes, paper money, matchsticks, rope, thread, and other objects, including 29 mind-reading effects. There are close-up tricks and tricks for the platform, tricks that require skill and tricks that require none. In general, the amout of skill demanded is surprisingly small, for Mr Kaplan has specialized in subtlety as contrasted with manipulative dexterity, and the explanations (checked and rechecked by Mr. Hugard) are beautifully clear and revealing. Adding to the clarity of the text are 316 illuminating drawings-the work of Francis J. Rigney, and (if is rumored) the finest illustrations to be found in any book on conjuring.

Here, in short, is information that will enable the amateur magician to baffle the experts!