I need some help from the erudite bibliophiles on this site.
Thirty some odd years ago a friend and I ran across an old magic book that triggered the insidious disease all of us on this site suffer from. That book has disappeared and I want to try to seek it out again. The problem is my memories are a bit vague.
The book was hard-bound and, I believe, from the late 1800s. I remember a line drawing of an adolescent boy wearing a white shirt with puffy sleeves, his arms spread looking out from the cover at the reader. A table stacked with the usual ephemera (cups, skittle, cards, etc.)was either in front of him or slightly to one side. There was gilt in the line drawing.
I could have sworn the title was "The Book of Magic" but I don't find anything with that title with the cover I remember.
Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? Have I lost my mind? Any help you can offer would be greatly apreciated!

What is the insidious disease you perceive us to be suffering?

Can you describe some symptoms?

Can you describe the contents of the book? the tone of the prose and the material described?

Not all editions of a book are published with the same artwork on the cover. And those puffy sleeved shirts were the standard at the time, and for the previous hundred odd years.

The magic disease is the malady to which I refer, which infection causes otherwise reasonable people to look at new coins with an eye different from others, to wonder if some harmless item can be made to vanish, twist or change. Then again, normalcy is highly over-rated!
It was a fairly standard book of magic tricks of the time with a somewhat extensive chemical magic section. I remember distinctly it did contain a recipe for flash paper, an experiment I'd rather not repeat at this stage of my life.
The writing style would be considered rather stilted now though it was fairly standard English of the time. I am fairly certain it wa written by a U.S. author, not British.
I understand the differences of various covers for succeeding eitions. But I don't mind playing long odds.

Just a point of information. "Ephemera" refers to things like broadsides, paperback books, lobby cards -- paper or cardboard items that are ephemeral or transitory in nature. The items you mention would be more properly called "accouterments" or "accoutrements" or even "props."

In some cases they would also be called "impedimenta," "treasures," or "that crap that my son keeps cluttering my table with."

LOL... thanks and your clarification duly noted. I'm not sure the last description isn't the most accurate!
That being said, I'm still no closer to the object of my quest!