1882. Folio, ff. [1] title, [2] preface and explanations, [22] leaves depicting celebrity hands with facsimile hand-written description below, [1] further leaf of description text, in lithograph throughout, each leaf printed on recto only, and each interleaved with pink paper; small tear at tail of Gladstone’s leaf, with small nick at lower gutter of Leighton’s plate, a couple of interleaved sheets with small marginal nicks, somewhat dust-soiled throughout, corners somewhat furled; in the original red publisher’s cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt on upper cover, head and tail of spine worn, covers considerably soiled and stained with some cockling, upper covers missing, and thus all a little dog-eared; nevertheless, a scarce survivor of an extraordinary work. Second edition, first published in the previous year, of this extraordinary and somewhat eccentric slim folio, intended ‘for the drawing room table’, and featuring drawings and brief analyses of the hands of some of England’s most prominent public figures of the day from the arts, sciences, and politics, including the Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809-1898), the novelist Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), the author and explorer Isabella Bird (1831-1904), the sculptress Amelia Robertson Hill (here ‘Mrs D. O. Hill’, 1821-1904), the journalist George Augustus Sala (1828-1895), and most notably, Charles Darwin (1809-1882).
Whilst written pseudonymously, it was apparently an open secret at the time that Claud Warren was, in fact, Charles Wahab (1837-1882), an engineer educated at the University of Edinburgh, who, whilst waiting to accompany the explorer Archibald Ross Colquhoun (1848-1914) as an assistant on the Southern China and India Expedition, undertook the current project. The expedition started from Canton in late 1881 and traversed just over 2,000 kilometres of southern China towards India. The arduous survey was to cost him his life, however, and he died in October 1882 in the Red Sea, presumably having continued corresponding with the publisher to issue this second edition.
The centuries old study of chiromancy, or palm-reading, experienced something of a renaissance from the mid-nineteenth century, alongside a fascination with the connected pseudo-sciences of phrenology and mesmerism. Done entirely in lithograph, largely by Warren himself, and reproducing his own life-size drawings and hand-written text, his explanatory preface states that he had courted 100 ‘celebrated persons’ for his project, and for the most part was well received. Only a handful declined or ‘were too ill-bred’ to respond to his request. The majority, however, had politely allowed him to draw outlines of their hands, and had added their autograph signatures. Time and money prevented him from producing a larger work, however, thus Warren initially selected twenty-four ’hands’ for his limited first edition print run, issued towards the end of 1881 according to a number of contemporary promotional advertisements. His final selection was based ‘not because of their positions, but because they exhibit certain definite traits of character, whose indices are, or should be, traceable in their hands’. Only the British Library, the London Library, and Cambridge appear to hold copies of this issue, and which also included the hands of Annie Besant (1847-1933) and Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891), both described on the title-page as ‘atheists’. It is unclear as to why the hands of these two prominent secularists and social reformers failed to make the cut for this second edition - perhaps they were just too controversial for the ‘drawing room table’. Aside from an entirely new letterpress title-page and having been reordered, this second edition appears, in effect, to be a reissue of the first, with the plates all dated 1881.
The 1881 title-page also notes that Warren intended the proceeds of the work would go ‘to the Sick-Children’s Hospital, Edinburgh’, and that some of the contributors gave a donation to a charity of their choice, including orphanages, crèches and convalescent homes. Indeed, the final leaf is dedicated to ‘the Sick Bairns of “Auld Reekie” from one who is not sick’. This strong connection with Scotland is also reflected in the selection of ‘illustrious persons’, including the Liberal statesman George D. Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll (1823-1900), the Queen’s Sculptor for Scotland, Sir John Steell (1804-1891) and the painter Sir Daniel Macnee (1806-1882).
So, what did Darwin’s hands look like? Apparently a rather large man, with hands disproportionate to his body. They are ‘hard and rough (the right one more so), very spatulous, and rather hairy with knotty fingers, and the line, numerous and confused’. Of the man himself, Warren highlights the controversy that his ideas aroused. Playing on the colloquial meaning of 'Charlies' as being 'inquisitive, mischievous, destructive, yet inventive little brats', he congratulates Darwin on living 'in 1881, and not in, or near 1581'. At that time, he would no doubt have ended up in the tower or burnt at the stake. Instead, it is his ‘Theory’ which the authorities and ‘State-Religion’ now put to the rack. He concludes by saying ’I suppose no man of the century has done more to encourage thinking to startle reflection of minds, to compel attention to purely scientific details, which he makes, not readable only, but delightful by his simple straightforward style. We call 300 years ago the age of the martyrdom of men, and of the Inquisition; 300 years hence this era will be called that of twisting and torturing ideas, and of “The Darwinian Theory”.
A wonderfully quirky and scarce work.