c1920 Cheiro's Guide to the Hand by Cheiro - Antique Guide Book

Here is an antique copy of Cheiro's Guide to the Hand by Cheiro. Undated, but would have been published around 1920 by Herbert Jenkins, London. To ensure it functioned as a true field guide, the book featured black-and-white drawings, photographs, and clear templates showing the "normal" positions of palm lines so amateurs could easily spot abnormalities. Condition in detail below.

A seminal practical manual on palm reading written by the legendary Irish occultist and astrologer William John Warner, who operated under the professional pseudonym Cheiro. Designed as a concise, highly accessible companion to his massive 1894 magnum opus, Cheiro’s Language of the Hand, this book was structured specifically to teach beginners how to analyse human character and destiny through the physical traits of the hand.

The Guide to the Hand was instrumental in moving palmistry out of traveling carnivals and into mainstream bourgeois parlor rooms as a popular social activity. By stripping away dense occult jargon and focusing on a step-by-step practical system, Cheiro created a template that almost all modern books on palmistry still copy today.

Cheirognomy (The Study of Hand Shapes): This section explains how the physical structure of the hand reveals inherent temperament. It covers the seven distinct hand types (e.g., square, spatulate, psychic, conic) and details how the size, flexibility, and shape of the thumb act as major indicators of logic and willpower.

Cheiromancy (The Study of Lines and Mounts): This section teaches the reader how to map and interpret the lines scoring the palm. It breaks down the significance of the primary lines—Life, Head, Heart, and Fate—and looks at the fleshy "mounts" of the palm, which Cheiro tied directly to astrological planetary influences (like Jupiter, Mars, and Venus).

Inside the book opens with a purple stamp to the title page. Has tanning and spotting to the outside edges, and spotting scattered through the text. The illustrations comprise black and white photos plus line drawn diagrams.

Pale-olive cloth over boards have black decoration and titles to the front and spine. With some faint marks to the cloth. A little rubbing to the cloth on the corners and spine ends.

Your antique copy of Cheiro's Guide to the Hand will be wrapped with care in tissue and ribbon* and sent well packaged. I am always happy to add a gift card with a message to the parcel.

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H 19.5 cm x W 13 cm, 123 pages, 0.25 kg. I dispatch worldwide daily from the UK. (There are just a very few countries which I am unable to ship to).

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