1900 Rare PALMISTRY Book - CHEIRO'S LANGUAGE OF THE HAND with reproductions of Famous Hands.
Author: CHEIRO. (William John Warner also known as Count Louis Hamon).
Title: Cheiro's Language of the Hand. A Complete Practical Work on the Sciences of Cheirognomy and Cheiromancy, Containing the System, Rules, and Experience of Cheiro. Reproductions of Famous Hands including the hands of Madame Sarah Bernhardt, Mark Twain, Countess of Aberdeen, Sir Frederick Leighton, etc.
Publisher: London, Nichols & Co., no date (circa 1900). 14th Edition. Revised and Enlarged.
Size: 10 "X 8 ".
Pages: xv-162 pages + full-page hands illustrations + Appendix.
Binding: Attractive and very good decorated full cloth binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean - as shown, small ex-libris and trace of a removed bookplate on the first endpaper - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with 55 full-page illustrations, and 200 engravings of lines, mounts, and marks. Drawings of the seven types by Theo Doré.
Estimate: (USD 175- USD 200)
The book: Attractive and rare edition of Cheiro's Language of the Hand. Cheiro had a wide following of famous European and American clients during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He read palms and told the fortunes of famous celebrities like Mark Twain, W. T. Stead, Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari, Oscar Wilde, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison, the Prince of Wales, General Kitchener, William Ewart Gladstone, and Joseph Chamberlain. He documented his sittings with these clients by asking them to sign a guest book he kept for the purpose, in which he encouraged them to comment on their experiences as subjects of his character analyses and predictions. Of the Prince of Wales, he wrote that "I would not be surprised if he did not give up everything, including his right to be crowned, for the woman he loved." Cheiro also predicted that the Jews would return to Palestine and the country would again be called Israel.
The author: William John Warner (also known as Count Louis Hamon according to some sources), popularly known as Cheiro (November 1, 1866 – October 8, 1936), was an Irish astrologer and colorful occult figure of the early 20th century. His sobriquet, Cheiro, derives from the word cheiromancy, meaning palmistry. He was a self-described clairvoyant who learned palmistry, astrology, and Chaldean numerology in India during his stay there. He was celebrated for using these forms of divination to make personal predictions for famous clients and to foresee world events.