The Darker Superstitions of Scotland, Illustrated from History and Practice
Edinburgh: Waugh and Innes, 1834.
First edition, first issue of a foundational occult text. [4], vii, [1], 700 pp. Rebacked, bound in contemporary University of Glasgow armorial binding, dark green calf with decorative stamping in blind and gilt, edges and endpapers marbled. Near Fine with moderate rubbing to covers, two bookplates and small stain to front endsheet, small catalogue clipping to fly-leaf, and penciled bookseller inscriptions and 1923 news clipping to back free endpaper recto. Contents lightly toned with widely scattered foxing and several small stains. Rare, with a gap of over 100 years between auction records.
John Graham Dalyell, sixth Baronet, fell from a table to a stone floor as an infant and never fully recovered his health. He consequently spent a great deal of time in the library after he qualified for the bar and became a consulting advocate. There he burrowed through hundreds of old manuscripts, which he synthesized into several valuable books on Scottish history and culture. The Darker Superstitions of Scotland, Daryell's oft-cited compendium of folklore and the occult covers witchcraft trials, demons, mystical plants, sacred wells, amulets, and much more.
This copy seems to have stayed in Scotland for some time. The binding is stamped with the coat of arms of the University of Glasgow, and the third of three ownership markings belongs to Rev. W.N. Neill, a minister at Carfin Church not twenty miles from Glasgow. In 1922 Neill contributed an article to The Scottish Historical Review titled "The Professional Pricker and His Test for Witchcraft," in which he cited this book, and he contributed several other articles to the London-based periodical The Occult Review. Beneath Neill's stamp are the bookplates of W. R. Turnbull and James Devon. The first might be the William Robertson Turnbull who published The Heritage of Burns in 1896. The latter might be fellow Burns enthusiast and Glasgow Prison medical examiner James Devon, a popular speaker and writer who published The Criminal and the Community in 1912. The section on witchcraft trials would have held particular interest for him.
Price: $12,500