The Chinese sensitive leaf

Description

Title: The Chinese sensitive leaf
Contributor: Pertista, Jan.
Published / Created: [approximately 1815]
Publication Place: London and England London
Publisher: Mollett, printer, Cannon-Street, Ratcliff-Highway
Description: Caption title.
First line: This is an account of the remarkably sympathetic power of the Chinese sensitive leaf, invented by one of the most celebrated operators, by the name of Jan Pertista Chaseretto, from China. It consists of two small thin leaves; the largest for gentleman, and the smallest for ladies. If you wish to know the temper of a person, you lay this leaf in the palm of his left hand, and you will be delighted to see it move of itself. If the person is of a sanguine temper, it rolls itself quickly up and falls from the hand; if he is of a choloric temper, it rolls itself up and runs toward the arm; if he is of a phlegmatic temper, it only rolls itself up a little, and remains laying; but if he is of a sanguine-choleric temper, it goes sometimes quick and sometimes slow."
Broadside describing the parlour entertainment which swept through the drawing rooms of England and America. Together with two printed ‘sensitive’ leafs, of a Chinese man and a Koi carp.
For further information, consult library staff.
Provenance: Marlborough Rare Books; October 2024.
Extent: 1 sheet (1 unnumbered page) ; 27 x 18 cm + 2 leaves
Extent of Digitization: This object has been completely digitized.
Language: English