Witchery of an Oriental Lamp (Hannes Bok's Copy, extra-illustrated by him)
New York: The Best Seller's Co., 1923.
First edition. Hannes Bok's copy, extra-illustrated by him with his extensive annotations and original illustrations throughout. 348pp. Bound in publisher's orange cloth stamped in black; lacking the dust jacket. Very Good with fading to spine, light soiling, wear to spine ends, front free endpaper is lacking and hinge there slightly exposed. Several tears, one of which Bok has incorporated into a drawing depicting a man in distress grabbing his injured neck at the tear, have been reinforced with tape. Provenance: The Gerry de la Ree collection, with his typed label at the front pastedown reading "Hannes Bok's copy all sketches and nttations [sic] made by the artist (1914-1974 [sic])." Bok died in 1964. A prohibition jazz-age potboiler featuring an alcoholic doctor. The story's anti-hero is shown by Bok many times with a bottle of hooch in hand, often in precarious situations in a buffoonish cartoon-like manner throughout the contents. Here, the Weird Tales illustrator portrays alcohol as the devil's drink, further emphasized by a full-page illustration of a pitchfork wielding imp riding a liquor bottle into the fiery pits of Hell at the rear endpaper. A fantastic, completely one-off artist's book by one the most influential weird fiction illustrators of the 20th century.
Price: $6,500