Stephen Ellcock's Esoteric Sticker Collection

Product detailed description

A cabinet of curiosities for your journals. Have you ever wondered what a planner decorated with an alchemist's cauldron would look like, or a postcard with a dancing skeleton? Esoterica gathers more than 750 stickers from the time when the world could be read through symbols, plants and stars. They were chosen by the London-based curator and image collector Stephen Ellcock.

The stickers are arranged by theme, and the selection is wonderfully varied: vintage illustrations of gems and plants with healing and magical properties, amulets and talismans, mythical and legendary creatures from folklore, seals and symbols for summoning spirits and angels, cauldrons and vials for brewing potions, and the philosopher's stone, astrological signs and figures, memento mori and dancing skeletons, some of them slightly terrifying.

Between the sticker pages are double-page landscapes: witchy forests, constellations of both hemispheres, séances and graveyards. They are joined by double pages of quotations on each theme, which set the images in context and invite reflection. The book therefore works as a visual publication in its own right, and is a pleasure to leaf through before you have stuck down anything.

It suits scrapbooking, journaling and collage, and the decorating of planners, folders or cards. The images come in various sizes and styles, so you can choose small details as well as bold motifs. It will delight readers of Ellcock's earlier books The Cosmic Dance, Underworlds and Elements, who appreciate how he combines images from different eras and cultures. It also makes a good gift for lovers of occult aesthetics and folklore.

Stephen Ellcock is a London-based curator, writer, researcher and collector of images who has spent the last decade building an ever-expanding virtual museum of art, open to all through social media. His online "cabinet of curiosities" has more than half a million followers. He is the author of Elements, Underworlds and The Cosmic Dance.