History of Tattooing and its Significance

1925. First Edition. HAMBLY, W.D. The History of Tattooing and its Significance. With Some Account of Other Forms of Corporal Marking. London: H.F. & WItherby, 1925. Octavo, original red cloth gilt. $3200.First edition, with eight plates of photographic illustrations, 16 in-text illustrations, and a folding map.The author of this early anthropological account of the practice of tattooing was trained at Oxford and worked as the assistant curator of African Ethnology of the Field Museum in Chicago. In addition to discussing the history, technique and geographic distribution of tattooing, he discusses it in relation to religious beliefs and practices, (truncated) magic, and its ""social and anti-social purposes."" Text with a few instances of faint foxing, cloth with very minor wear, mild toning to spine. (Inventory #: 126505)