When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
BLAVATSKY, Helena Petrovna (“H. P. B.”)The Voice of the Silence: Being Chosen Fragments from the “Book of the Golden Precepts.” For the Daily Use of Lanoos (Disciples). Translated and Annotated by “H. P. B.” First Series.
London: The Theosophical Publishing Company, Limited, 7 Duke Street, W.C.; New York: W. Q. Judge, 21 Park Row, 1889.
First edition of Blavatsky’s essential mystical manual, preserved in the publisher\'s original gilt-decorated blue cloth. An item of extraordinary bibliographic scarcity, WorldCat records only three institutional holdings worldwide (British Library; Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen; University of British Columbia).
This copy is unique, featuring a contemporary sepia silver-print double portrait of co-founders H. P. Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott mounted to the front pastedown, showing pronounced period silver mirroring across the shadow tones.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC SPECIFICATIONS
Edition: First Edition, First Impression (dual London/New York imprint prior to single-publisher reissues).
Format: Small 8vo (approx. 6½ × 5 inches / 165 × 125 mm).
Pagination: [vi], 97, [1, printer\'s imprint] pp. Collated complete. Includes The Voice of the Silence, The Two Paths, The Seven Portals, and concluding Glossary.
Binding: Original dark-blue cloth. Front board ruled and lettered in gilt with diagonal subtitle arrangement and three circular gilt emblems. Plain spine, all edges gilt.
THE MOUNTED PERIOD PORTRAITMounted inside the upper board is an early 19th/20th-century silver-based photographic print depicting Blavatsky and Olcott seated together, positioned behind a table with facsimile autographs in the lower margin. Under directional light, the dark passages exhibit substantial metallic silver mirroring—confirming an authentic silver gelatin print process rather than a later mechanical offset reproduction.
ESSENTIAL HISTORICAL IMPORTANCEIssued in a minute press run intended primarily for inner-circle disciples (Lanoos) and bearing the iconic printed dedication \"Dedicated to the Few,\" The Voice of the Silence stands alongside The Secret Doctrine as Blavatsky’s most enduring spiritual text. Translating fragments from the sacred Book of the Golden Precepts, its poetic treatise on the Bodhisattva ideal of compassion profoundly influenced modern esoteric thought, late-Victorian occultism, and early Western interpretations of Mahayana Buddhism.
CONDITION REPORT
Binding: Original cloth intact with clear, bright front-cover gilt. Light rubbing, scuffing, and minor damp-marking to boards; fading along spine and joints. Spine ends lightly frayed; corners bumped with minor exposure to board tips.
Interior: Firm binding. Endpapers and preliminary leaves show characteristic age-toning and light scattered foxing, heavily concentrated on the title page. Text block clean throughout.
