Early flagellation novels are scarce in English, the majority of this type of material produced tended to be of a pseudo scientific nature. Even scarcer are those with illustrations. There was some difficult in scanning these images, as the books are very small and bound together in one volume, so my apologies for any defects. I hope you enjoy them.
KERMOR ,YVAN. Silk stockings+ The sweet games of love. Kisses! Caresses ! Love! By Georges de Chanrosey.+ A little Trottin or Yvette’s passion by Georges de Chanposey. Librairie des Éditions Modernes, no date app. 1900-1920. 111+114+124 pages pp. With illustrations by Eduard Bernard (1st and 3rd). Novels about flagellation. Bound in a fine contemporary half calf with raised bands and goldtext on spine. First Edition.
Silk Stockings
Yvan Kermor, Silk Stockings: Librairie des Éditions Modernes. Paris n.d. 111 pages. With colour cover illustration and hors-texte by Eduard Bernard.
Title Page
The illustrations
The sweet games of love. Kisses! Caresses ! Love!
Georges de Chanrosey.The sweet games of love. Kisses! Caresses ! Love! :Librairie des Éditions Modernes n.d , 114 pages. Colour cover illustration by uncredited artist. no other illustrations.
Title Page
A little Trottin or Yvette’s Passion
Georges de Chanposey: A little Trottin or Yvette’s Passion. Librairie des Éditions Modernes, n.d. 124 pages, with colour cover illustration and hors-texte by Eduard Bernard.
Title Page
The illustrations
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A clandestine title with wonderfully exaggerated claims to its illustrator and benefactor, printed on very poor quality paper its likely this was produced by the Miller Brothers who were part of New York City’s clandestine erotica scene along with Sam Roth, Esar Levine, and Ben Rebhuhn.
A Lustful female
a study of the female past thirty, her reaction when engaged in the art of love-making and her lustful private life : all of this and more is described in this volume by a famous author whose name we connot [i.e. cannot] divulge.
In original boards with Title in gilt on the spine, Printed London ENG: 1938, but almost certainly New York, the 1938 date may be correct, but despite the famous author remaining anonymous, the prose is positively purple, and they were right to remain anonymous, the artist has signed the illustrations Carmen 27, and they are on glossy photographic paper and were probably lifted from an earlier publication. Also the wonderfully convoluted limitation quote.
The Illustrations
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A departure from my usual posts, this book is in itself a work of art, printed on Velin D’Arches, a beautiful print production, by Paul Hérrisey, decorated with en-tétes, lettres ornées, and cul-de-lamps by Eugéne Dété. And full page engraved plates and in text engravings by Martin Van Maele.
Title Page
In original printed card covers 334 pages + Table, limited edition 83/250, illustrated with 14 Hors Texte and 6 en Texte, by Martin Van Maele.
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A short-lived (1968-1969) Los Angeles publishing imprint, a subsidiary of Milton Luros’s Parliament News, Inc, specializing in highbrow erotica. Many Essex House novelists were young serious writers (several of them poets), and some used scenarios drawn from sf and fantasy, including future Dystopias, as settings for their pornography. About half the 42 titles published by Essex House were sf/fantasy; they included novels by Philip José Farmer, Richard E Geis, David Meltzer (perhaps the most distinguished), Michael Perkins (1942- ) and Hank Stine (see Jean Marie Stine), of which a number were ambitious, some literary, and most somewhat joyless – even emetic – and redolent of 1960s radicalism. The unusual aspirations of this imprint are generally attributed to its young editor, Brian Kirby, who also edited the pornographic books of the sister imprint, Brandon House. [PN]
further reading
Maxim Jakubowski. “Essex House: The Rise and Fall of Speculative Erotica” (September 1978 Foundation #14) [pp50-64: mag/]
As my collection of this imprint has progressed over recent months, with only 4 titles required for completion, I am very pleased to add this extremely rare piece of printed ephemera, printed on 4 sides listing the titles , artwork and prices of the first 23 titles published by the press.
Another mystery item, unable to research anything other than the basic information, I would be interested to receive any information regarding the publisher and the artist.
Journal d’une Fille de Ferme.
Sans lieu ni Date. In-8° en ff, sous chemise et étui muet de l’éditeur.
Texte encadré en rouge, 12 illustrations H.T., trés libres, tirées en bistre. Tirage limité à 500 exemplaires. (PIA 379-706).Edition originale qui fut condamnée une première fois en 1954
Journal d’une Fille de Ferme.
In sheets in original cream card covers, Title in black italics on cover, 81 pages, text contained in red border. Issued in a limited edition 486/500. Complete with 12, unsigned Half Tone illustrations in bistre, paired in six uncut sheets. Prosecuted in 1954.
Title Page
Limitation Page
The illustrations
This item is available for trade against my Paris Olympia Press wants.
By far my most ambitious listing, this stunningly beautiful edition of Gamiani, is a late clandestine publication, for which I can find very little bibliographical information, the only reference which I can locate, is from The eroticabibliophile, which offers the description below, which although I am certain describes another copy of the same book, is wrong in other details:-
In-4. 130pp. Limited edition of 325 of which 25 are for collaborateurs. Chemise cover. Calligraphic text. 32 lithographs in text + 14 plates in black and blood-red.A bookseller notes of his copy (which may be 1 of the 25) “9 full page single sheet illustrations loosely placed in folder with female figure in acetate-covered inset front cover. Also laid in is envelope containing another 18 single sheet full page images, two foldout and some duplicating those that accompany text.” (Johnnycake Books, 03/07/05) (Dutel: 1656)
As you can see from the limitations page below, it appears that the entire run is 300 plus 25 copies Examplaire d’Artiste,of which this copy is number 17. This volume is complete in Folio with 150 pages, uncut in leaves, text in calligraphy, with 12 full page illustrations in colour, plus 32 illustrations in text in a mixture of bistre and black. In addition there is an additional suite, of the original 12 illustrations with artists embellishments, contained in an illustrated gate-fold, featuring the main characters. Extra addition is a suite Tres Libre of 12 full page illustrations also in an illustrated gate-fold.
I will publish this in stages as this is a large piece of work, below is stage one which is the bulk of the book with the standard illustrations.
Limitations page
The illustrations
GAMIANI: Second Suite (artists embellishments)
Gate-fold:
GAMIANI: Third Suite (Tres Libre)
Gate -Fold
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A special item, in that it is the first piece of ephemera ever donated to my collection, and although very fragile and flimsy I am absolutely delighted with it, and share the sentiment, in the covering letter that came with it, my grateful thanks to Ezra of Alta- Glamour,formerly Ivan Stormgart Books.
14.3.1 1955 (Summer-Autumn).
Tri-fold advertising, price list and order form, measuring 10.0 x 27.0 cm and printed in blue and black on thin white paper.
Includes the first fifteen titles of the Traveller’s Companion series, and (inexplicably) six Atlantic Library titles that are said to be out of print.
In addition, a number of the earlier Olympia titles by Sade, Miller, Apollinaire, &c. are listed with brief promotional blurbs.
Lolita and The Naked Beast at Heaven‘s Gate are both advertised as appearing on July 31st., the later with an elaborate limitation.
Nexus is announced for publication the following year.
Notes: The address of the Olympia Press at this time was 8 rue de Nesle.
Bibliographical description courtesy of Patrick Kearney, The Paris Olympia Press, Liverpool University Press 2007.
A very rare clandestine edition of the title originally published, also clandestinely in English, in 1885, under the title Autobiography of a Flea, subsequently published in French by Brancart, in 1890, under the title Souvenirs d’une Puce. This copy even rarer in that it is illustrated, the book itself is printed on poor quality paper and the illustrations are on a brownish card, my scans actually are an improvement on the appearance of the illustrations.
This title is available for trade against my Paris Olympia Press wants
Mémoires d’une Puce.
This Copy rebound in blue marbled boards, with title in gilt on a blue leather spine. Volume I [et II]. Paris, 1913 [ 1921?] p.p. 160 + 160, with a frontispiece and 9 full page illustrations by an unsigned artist.
The illustrations.
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A really good find, and the best copy I have seen in the last 10 years, you would not believe the trouble that I went to to finally get this in my hands, but now I have it a near fine copy, which is still resistant to being opened, hence the images are restricted to the cover and the title page.
1.16.1 QUIET DAYS IN CLICHY Henry Miller, 1956
First and original edition | HENRY MILLER | QUIET DAYS | IN | CLICHY | Photographs by | BRASSAÏ | THE |OLYMPIA PRESS | 8 Rue de Nesle, Paris 6 | 1956 Collation: 176 pp. [1]-[22]4; the final gathering is actually signed 21, but should be 22 because due to a printer’s error the fourth and fifth gatherings are both signed 4 causing all subsequent statements to be off by 1. 17.5 x 10.5 cm., all edges trimmed. Printed on thick, white wove paper. Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] QUIET DAYS | IN |CLICHY, reverse blank. p. [5] title, as above. p. [6] FOR A |COMPLETE LIST OF HENRY MILLER’S WORKS | ON SALE IN FRANCE, | WRITE TO : | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | 8, Rue de Nesle, Paris 6 | Printed in France | [rule] | All rights reserved by Henry Miller. Copyright 1956. pp. 7-171, text. p. [172] blank. p. [173] PRINTED BY | IMPRIMERIE MAZARINE | AND IMPRIMERIE AULARD, | PARIS, | IN JULY 1956 | FOR | THE OLYMPIA PRESS, | 8 rue de Nesle, Paris 6e | PRINTED IN FRANCE | [rule] | Dépôt légal, 3e trimestre 1956. pp. [174-176] blank. Sixteen pages of plates interspersed through the text.
Binding: Thick card wrappers, with abstract design in black, gold, grey and white across front cover, spine and back cover. Thin gray free endpapers.
Frontcover; title and author printed in black within gold panel, superimposed over grey designs: HENRY MILLER | QUIET DAYS | IN CLICHY. Printed in black within gold panel: With photographs by Brassaï.
Printed in black yellow panel on back cover: THE OLYMPIA PRESS. At the foot of front inside flap: COVER DESIGN BY T. [Shinkichi] TAJIRI. Back inside flap blank. Notes: (1) Some copies of this edition have been reported in which the plates have a gloss finish instead of a matt finish. See: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Dr. James F. O‘Roark Collection of the Works of Henry Miller (Santa Barbara: Joseph the Provider, catalogue 22, item A182). The compilers of this catalogue noted that their copy lacked the colophon, and so were unable to say whether this copy represents a special issue or whether it received individual attention. However, a letter from Roger Jackson, Henry Miller’s bibliographer, to the present author dated October 22, 1992, indicates that in all respects save the difference in photographs the copies he’d examined with matt and glossy plates were identical. It would seem that trial copies of the first edition with illustrations in both states were run off, perhaps to determine which looked better. Since copies with matt plates are more common one must assume that this design prevailed, but that the few copies with the glossy plates were released with the main print run rather than merely destroyed. (2) In William Ashley’s copy of this edition there is only one signature numbered 4 (on p. 33), and yet the arrangement of the stitching and faulty numeration of the later signatures is identical to the compiler’s copy. The only way I can account for this is to think because the signatures are located close to the edge of the leaf, in Mr. Ashley‘s copy the signature was missed during printing or cut off during the trimming/binding process. (3) Prosecuted on May 5th, 1959 under article 14 of the 1949 law.
Bibliographical description courtesy of Patrick Kearney, The Paris Olympia Press, Liverpool University Press 2007. The index number indicates the actual location of the description within the bibliography.
A rare 1930’s clandestinely published title, apparently originally published under the title “Exploits d’un Galant Précoce”, again clandestinely by Auguste Brancart in 1890, Bibliocuriosa name both the author, the mysterious E.D. as Émile Desjardins, and the publisher as Marcel Sehuer.
This title is available for trade against my Paris Olympia Press wants.
Title Page Vol 1
MES ÉTAPES AMOUREUSES [par] E. D. Imprimé pour les Colporteurs Gascons [Paris? c. 1935]. 8vo. Two volumes, pp. 154+3ff, 156+2ff. Twelve illustrations signed ‘Calves’ printed on photographic paper. Limited to 500 copies. [Paris, Marcel Sehuer v. 1935] Dutel 1973.
The illustrations Vol 1
Title Page Vol 2
The Illustrations Vol 2
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