An Original Circular Engraved Metal Printing Plate Reproducing a Photographic Portrait of Aleister Crowley Smoking a Cigar. Prepared for an Unidentified Publication.
ND (ca. 1942). The plate is made of thin metal (steel?) with the a circular engraved surface 3 1/8 inch in diameter, mounted on a roughly 3 1/8 inch square, 7/8 of an inch thick, wooden block. The portrait of Crowley shows him seated in an armchair, smoking an indecently long cigar. The image appears similar to or the same as the portrait used on one of the two "Liber Oz" cards that Crowley released in late 1942, but it is too large to have been the one that was actually used on the card. We have been unable to identify any contemporary publication reproducing that particular photograph in this size, and it seems possible, at least, that it was intended for use on the "Liber Oz" card but rejected at the last moment as being too large. Otherwise it was presumably prepared for a publication that Crowley planned, but never executed. The plate came from an old collection, with other Crowley printing plates that definitely date from 1942 - 1946, and it is without doubt from the last half-dozen years of Crowley's lifetime, and most likely from 1942. The engraving is very faint: when viewed from some angles the plate appears almost blank, when held at other angles a very faint, almost ghostly image can just be seen. An interesting curiosity. A couple of light scratches and marks to the surface, but over all VG condition. Item #67662
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