The Little Black Book of Magic

David was thrilled. He had been to a yard sale in a small, sleepy town in Wiltshire. A big brown box had attracted his attention and his instinct for a treasure hunt was rising. He purchased the box contents unseen. The anticipation of what was in the box was giving him a good feeling as he drove home.

Rather than attack the box, he placed it neatly on a shelf in his warehouse, decided the work day was over and made his way over to the pub. At the Carpenter’s Arms, he relaxed at the bar with a pint of his favourite Black Book Ale. Produced locally by a brewer called William Author, the slightly bitter, blackish brew was going down a treat and really refreshing after a long day.

A burger and bun was ordered and consumed. Another pint was drunk and then David strolled gently home to his house in the country surrounded by trees and flowers. Beautiful!

The next morning, after a highly satisfactory sleep, breakfast was eaten and the highlight of the day dawned. Oh the anticipation! The mystery box was going to be unpacked and the delights (and possibly profits for David was a dealer in antiquities) to be revealed.

Rather like unwrapping a present, David opened the box and pulled out an item at a time. Firstly an envelope stuffed with what appeared to be photographs. Not much time was spent on this. A carved wooden box, an old cigar box, a bag of old makeup - vintage mind, there would always be a collector wanting to buy stuff like that. A bunch of cutlery. The box was obviously part of a house clearance. Trying to ignore the thoughts of the old people who had eaten their meals from the tines of the forks, Dovid delved right to the bottom of the box. And there it was. The little black book, bound in leather with embossed letters reading MAGIC.

Our intrepid antiques dealer had seen a lot in his life, but never come across a spell book before. Handwritten in tiny sloping letters were the words to charm a young lady, remove an unsightly blemish and best of all, how to tame a toad. Chuckling to himself, he thought of a buyer that he had that collected memorabilia of an antiquarian nature and how this client would love this book. The rest of the box seemed rather flat after that but there was a pair of silver candlesticks that would probably make the whole exercise worthwhile.

Later in the week, David met up with his client and showed him the book. The client laughed and said it was a fake, probably an art project of a student. Oh well, thought David, you can’t win them all and ordered another round of Black Book ale for the two of them. As the evening drew to a close, David noticed that there was a postcard folded into the flap at the back of the book. Upon closer inspection, it was an originally drawn picture with a signature and date on it. The signature was William Author - the same name as the man who owned the brewery that brewed the black book ale. How coincidental, thought David. Serendipitous even. He went to sleep on the discovery. Sleep helps clear the mind and enable a good plan.

The next morning, David took a photograph of the book and some of the pages and sent an email to the Black Book Brewery attention of William Author asking him if the book was his and would he be interested in buying it.

Nothing happened for ages and in fact David had put the book aside on a shelf and moved on to other things. Then the email came through from Black Book Brewery. Well actually the email came from the personal assistant of Mr Author.

Dear David, it read. Thank you for the email and the pictures of the book that you sent. Mr Author can confirm that he is indeed the owner of the book and had lost it many years ago when he was lodging as an art student in Bristol. Due to the sentimental value of the book, he would like to meet you to ascertain that it’s genuine and make you a personal offer for it’s return.

Well, that was intriguing, interesting and unexpected for David. He duly emailed back and soon, the two met up at The Carpenters Arms for a pint of Black Book. There was indeed a jolly discourse over the book and it’s contents and David was duly offered twenty thousand dollars for the book. Naturally, that far exceeded David’s expectations for the item. I mean a little black book of magic for twenty thousand dollars - that IS magic. Pocketing the cheque, which cleared, David went back to his antiques business and thought very little of the black book that he sold apart from to reflect on his good fortune.

Until a few years later when the postcard that was tucked into the book went up for auction as an original artwork that a well known commercial artist had made when he was an art student in the 1980s. That was sold for slightly more than twenty thousand dollars; another zero was added on the end. And the book itself? Well that was actually an original spell book from the 1800’s and now resides in a museum in Oxford where several mysterious things went on at one time.