Beschreibung:

(Blow Books)An Italian manuscript blow book, np, ca. 1800 4to (267 x 178 mm). 94 leaves (6 blank leaves at one end and 7 blank leaves at the other), with paired drawings in pencil, ink, ink wash, watercolor, and combinations thereof in a series of 7 repeated sequences, interspersed with blank pages and 2 manuscript pages in Italian (but one page in first sequence is written in Latin, and the final manuscript page appears to be cryptographic), some pages notched to form tabs, others with tabs pasted on. Rebound in green cloth, original green morocco gilt spine laid down; rehinged with masking tape. The images featured in each sequence are, in order: tulips or iris, a snake entwined around the trunk of a slender willow tree, a skeleton and a devil grasping a pitch fork, a cobbler at his workbench, Harlequin, Colombina, an array of playing cards, and Pulcinella. The images vary somewhat in their composition or execution. They do, however, follow the same directional pattern: the first four images run right side up and upside down while the last four run upside down.