Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2018 Issue

The Portable Lavater: Never judge a book by its forehead

- by Thibault Ehrengardt

Vladimir Putin - a nice man?

1. Vladimir Putin, Russian President.

 

 

- The forehead: “This is the part,” our book reads, “that truly reveals one’s intelligence.” Putin’s forehead can be described, I guess, as “lightly arched” and “with no marked angle”—then, it denotes “niceness”. Is it “open and plain”? Then it is a sign of “inner peace”. But when wrinkled, as in Putin’s case, it is the “mark of the tempest of passions and of a restless mind.” Wrinkled at the junction of the nose, it tells of a “tough and insensible character.”

- The eyebrows: when horizontal, they are the signs of “virility and strength”; and when partly horizontal and partly bowed, they mean “energy and vitality.”

- The mouth: “It plays the most important part in physiognomy,” reads our book, “as it almost inevitably expresses the state of someone’s mind.” Is Putin’s mouth “often closed, with pursed lips”? That would make him a “greedy man”. But if his mouth is “pursed with invisible corners,” it means he is “a very industrious man, friend of order of cleanliness.”

- The chin: if prominent, it denotes “energy”; if round, “kindness”.

- The cheeks: “rudeness and brutality trace important wrinkles.”

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
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    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
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    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
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    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
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    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

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