Books for Trade: Lady Impéria, Les Égarements d’un Asservi. No publisher. No date but Editions d’Antin (c 1936)

February 20, 2020February 20, 2020 / Steve M. / Leave a comment

Another title from the “Vidal” stable of of bookshops and publishers, which was composed of,- Les éditions du Couvre-feu : éditions d’Antin, éditions du Chevet, édition Curio, éditions Georges de Cayla, éditions Idéal, éditions de Minuit, éditions Richepanse & Le Jardin d’Eros.

It appears common for Editions d’Antin titles to be issued as clandestine, some without even printer details, as this copy. The single identifying factor, is the calligraphic motif on all the covers, it could be an L or a Z or even a stylised whip? This publishers or printers mark is sometimes the only way to link a title to an originator.

As this is not an illustrated title it is relatively easy to list, with only a little research, it is of interest to the serious erotic bibliophile, because it is a clandestine title that does not appear to have been identified as such in the major bibliographies. For bibliographic information see. Les éditions du couvre-feu, Christophe Bier, editions Astarte 2013.

Title Page

Lady Impéria, Les Égarements d’un Asservi. No publisher. No date but Editions d’Antin (c 1936). In 8 (14.3 x 22.7 cm) 179 pp. In original beige card covers printed in black and red, original price of 60 Francs on cover and spine, which also has author and title printed in black, plain back cover. Light rubbing to front cover otherwise amazingly well preserved and complete, a very good copy of a very rare title.

Front Cover

Spine

Back Cover

Sample Text

bibliographic Information and synopsis, courtesy of Christophe Bier

I have taken the liberty of attempting to translate the synopsis from the French (Image above), Any mistakes are mine alone and I offer apologies in advance , both to Christophe and anyone taking the trouble to read this.

(The title roughly translates as ” The Errors of a Slave”)

“”The financier Robert Brot-Gillières, bearer of the Legion of Honor, gravitates around the perverse masseuses and the flogging houses. In search of new thrills, he lets himself be manhandled by two ordinary women, Mrs. Voulay and her fifteen-year-old niece. Mathilde, They understand the financial gain they can derive from him, by treating him as a slave. Changed by his masochism, the man becomes extremely unpleasant to his wife. Intrigued by this change of character, Simone, her daughter-in-law, refers to Miss Diana, a professor of physical culture who commences to initiate him into Sapphism and fantasies of flagellation. After having dismissed the two greedy battleaxes, the Professor confuses the masochist by delivering him to two masked flagellants … Simone and her mother! “Unmask” added Madame Brot-Gillières with scathing irony, “the voluptuous Robert will not need to look for sensations elsewhere: he will have his whippers at home!” “

Anyone prepared to offer a more accurate translation, please do so by completing a contact form, your name will only be used if you so wish.

Comments always welcome and are positively encouraged as are “Likes”

Random Images: Domina

February 19, 2020February 20, 2020 / Steve M. / 2 Comments

As it is now taking me such a long time to put together a listing for a book, I have decided to post random images from books, that I have that will never be listed here in full. This, the first of a series , unless I get bored with the idea. I am not even going to tell you where the image is from or who it is by, I might not even know who the image is by!

These images are from various titles dealing with the history of erotica, in various languages, or just odd things I have lying around.

If anyone knows where the image is from or who it is by, please leave a comment or complete a contact form. Your name will not be published unless you so wish.

Domina

Books for Trade: LA BEUQUE, Jean de; Miss Cravache ou Les Vierges Esclaves, Editions Prima, 44 rue Servan, Paris (Xie), n.d. [circa 1932], illustrations by Topfer, Jean de la Beque and Ely Costes.

February 16, 2020February 16, 2020 / Steve M. / 2 Comments

Every now and then a book comes along that has everything right about it, this is one such book. Not necessarily because of condition, but because the object itself is aesthetically pleasing, I have had number of titles produced by Editions Prima, and have been impressed by the quality of the books, both in structure and content. Despite this it is difficult obtain a list of titles produced by the press. They appear to have been quite prolific, producing pulp novels in their Editions Gauloise series and other esoteric titles.I have not been able to locate a definitive list of the flagellation novels.

Matters are made more complex by the list of titles by this author in the front of this volume, none of which are Editions Prima titles. They are all either Amateur-Biblio or Librairie Générale titles, this is possibly explained by this title apparently being a reissue of the same title produced in 1930 by Librairie Générale , I have not had site of that edition, but from the limited material available on line it looks to be of a much poorer quality than this edition. If this copy is a piracy it is a very expensive one. If anyone can explain this anomaly please complete a contact form.

I have decided to lay this one out in book form, so that the page decorations can be seen in situ, rather than just cropping out the illustrations, I have used only images in the book to construct this listing, it always make me happy when a book provides all of the content required to decorate a listing. Enjoy!

Synopsis

First episode of the adventures of Betty, alias Miss Cravache, daughter of an American businessman installed in Corrèze, with a strong and eccentric character. With the help of her butler and stable master, she took a liking to the domination and training of impressionable young girls, including her niece, whom she treated like a bitch.

LA BEUQUE, Jean de SMIT; Miss Cravache ou Les Vierges Esclaves, Editions Prima, 44 rue Servan, Paris (Xie), n.d. [circa 1932], illustrations by Topfer, Jean de la Beque and Ely Costes. In original illustrated cover on textured cream card printed in black and red with a red vignette by Ely Costes. Adorned with 12 inset heliogravures in sepia, on loose sheets including a frontispiece by Topfer [Gaston SMIT) and 4 inset illustrations, decorated caps and chapter ends by Jean de La Bequque and Ely Costes. . In-8 softcover, 14.3 x 22.7 cm. 223 pp. In excellent condition. Reissue, in all respects, of a novel published by the Librairie Générale in 1930. It was belatedly condemned in 1953 by the Seine court.

Covers

Books for trade: BRÉVANNES, Roland. – La Nudité de Lucy. Sceaux: Select Bibliothèque, 1920. illustrated by Tack

February 9, 2020 / Steve M. / 2 Comments

The Select-Bibliothèque was one of several publishing houses specializing in fetish material that flourished in Paris during the first half of the twentieth century. Like the others, notably Jean Fort’s ‘Orties Blanches’ series and the ‘Librairie Artistique et Editions Parisiennes Reunies’ of Paul Brenet, the books of the Select Bibliothèque were published openly. Occasionally a title would cross some mysterious line and be prosecuted, but in general, since there was no sex in the conventional sense, these publishers were left to their devices by the authorities.

Despite the openness of these books, the publisher of the Select Bibliothèque remains unknown, at least to this cataloguer. Paul Jérôme writes of Don Brennus Aléra as being “un (ou plusieurs) des pourvoyeurs de l’editeur parisien Massy…”(Dictionnaire des œuvres érotiques, Paris: Mercure de France,1971, p. 484). In fact, Massy was where the earliest books in the series were published. The almost anagramitic similarity of the names of the authors of most of the books – Bernard Valonnes,Don Brennus Aléra, Roland Brevannes – suggests a single hand at work, and one that spanned in excess of 30 years. And it might not be unreasonable to think that the author was also the publisher.

BRÉVANNES, Roland. – La Nudité de Lucy. Sceaux: Select Bibliothèque, 1920. In-16, 208 pp., 8 illustrations signed ‘Tack.’ Part of the series ‘Les Nuits rouges. This copy, rebound in cheap boards, original covers not preserved, otherwise surprisingly complete, the last page is pasted to the back board, text is complete, and all 8 illustrations by Tack are present and in very good condition. This is number 48 in the series, these titles are highly collectible, and are elusive because the cheap production quality reduces the likelihood of survival.

Original Cover (missing from the item listed ) image supplied courtesy of, Christophe Bier.

Bibliographical information reproduced with his permission from Patrick Kearney’s Scissors and Paste website

http://www.scissors-and-paste.net/pdf/Select_Bibliotheque.pdf

Books for trade: DESERGY, René-Michel: Les Tyrans passionnels. Librairie Artistique et Édition Parisienne réunies, 1935, Illustrations by Carlo

February 7, 2020February 11, 2020 / Steve M. / Leave a comment

Well this was very nearly impossible, despite my invention; the BBDSM featured in my last post, because of a combination of my disability and the tightness of the binding, it was not possible to obtain flattened images, so this listing is one of my less satisfying.

If there is enough interest I will attempt to do it again but my images do not do the illustrations justice,

Updated 11/02/2020 – Scans inserted

[CARLO]. DESERGY, René-Michel. Les Tyrans passionnels. Librairie Artistique et Édition Parisienne réunies, 1935. Rebound in quarter black leather, on speckled boards, spine with 6 raised bands inter-spaced with gilt decorations , title and author in gilt lettering, Original covers not preserved (25,2 x 17 cm) 266 pages. Contains the frontispiece and 11 other illustrations, (lacks 1 illustration) which I have been able to provide an image of below. There is some wear to the open edge of the boards, and some aging to pages, the illustrations have finger marks on page edges (outside of the illustrations), overall good +

This is a very rare title and worth having the image pages at least professionally cleaned. This title, is in a larger format and printed on high quality paper, than any of the other titles in this series, the illustrations were inspired by photographic models,and the frontispiece is an example of the style of Carlo’s other pseudonym “Charleno”.

I wish I could tell you more, but there is not a lot of information out there, perhaps someone could contribute more information. I suggest that those of you who read French, should obtain a copy of”Carlo” by Robert Merodack’, published by Editions Dominique Leroy 1984, which offers an affordable access to a large number of Carlo illustrations. This volume confirms a frontispiece and 12 illustrations is correct for “Les Tyrans passionnels”.

Again my apologies for the quality of the images.

Updated 11/02/2020 – Scans inserted

Copy of the image missing from this book, from an old auction listing.

Print details

Coming soon: DESERGY, René Michel, Les tyrans passionnels. illustrated by Carlo

February 6, 2020 / Steve M. / 1 Comment

Possibly later today, but in the meantime I want to share my new invention with you which also is the introduction of a new form fetishistic practice, I call it Bibliondage, or BBDSM. It is a methodology for disciplining books that will not lay flat enough to be scanned,I hope the following images will be self explanatory.

Rest assured the book is suitably repentant, and locked in a glass case, until such a time I can dispose of it.

I have to warn you the results are far from perfect, but with one fully functional hand and a limited budget, one must be creative, feel free to make your own,

Ingredients: One, 12 kg Kettle Bell, 2 perspex bookends (Large), 1 rubber band (Medium) ( or more to taste).

Detailed assembly instructions available on request

Your comments are welcome

Parisolympiapress.com: Update 05/02/2020

February 5, 2020February 5, 2020 / Steve M. / 5 Comments

Still suffering from shock at our departure from the EU, I rather liked being a European, and dislike Brexit and it supporters intensely. That aside I am pondering the future of this blog, for unrelated reasons.

I have been running this site for nearly 5 years, and its sworn purpose was to assist in completing my Paris Olympia Press collection, which it did in a limited way, but I am very much aware that there is very little interest in the actual books, and even less in the Paris Olympia Press.

The secondary purpose of the site was to provide free access to information about rare erotica, and give full access to all the illustrations, working on the principle that the vast majority of people will never have access to such art, because it is in the main hard to find and expensive and book-dealers seldom give access to the full set of illustrations prior to purchase, some even deliberately neglect to give the number of illustrations, which is usually an indicator that some are missing.

All of the books listed on this site are or have been in my possession, they are all real books, that I have purchased with my own money, I do not keep many books other than my Paris Olympia collection, which may soon be sold. Every thing I sell I use the income to buy more books, or I have been doing this so far. I love running this blog and it has kept me amused and interested since I launched it despite having long absences due to, originally work, and subsequently ill health.

I have become aware that significant numbers of visitors are using my images for commercial purposes, which I do not have a particular problem with, other than the fact that they are not crediting this site for the images. I am pondering about how to make the site pay for itself, and considering, a number of options, including restricting access to members, charging a download fee, or even watermarking my images. Other options could be to offer advertising space, possibly to book dealers or book search engines.

All of the above, have little appeal to me,I rather like the idea of being an outsider and I enjoy sharing my passion. Going mainstream is something I am reluctant to do, but the alternative may be to give up completely and shut down the site. In the 5 years I have been running, I have had 97,800 visitors and 1,017,000, views, I have only 68 followers.

Not such great figures for 5 years, but this is without any other social media links, largely created by word of mouth. This site comes up on a large number of searches, and I like to think, provides more real information, about the books and their contents than pretty much anyone else out there. Mostly without a lot of waffle, although I do have my moments.

I have probably exceeded the attention span of most of my visitors with this missive,(no pictures), but I want your input, and invite you to complete the contact form below.

Should I remain an outsider and keep blowing my pension on books for everyone to see for free? should I go commercial? open up to restricted access or members? should I try allowing advertising? or should I just quit?

Books for trade: Slavy, Bob: Mrs. Goodwhip et son esclave, Collection des Orties Blanches [ Jean Fort ], Paris 1932.Illustrations by Léon Pierre.

January 25, 2020January 25, 2020 / Steve M. / Leave a comment

Slavy, Bob Mrs. Goodwhip et son esclave, Collection des Orties Blanches [ Jean Fort ], Paris 1932.Illustrations by Léon Pierre. In original paper wraps printed on cover and spine in red and black,(23 x 15 cm) 289 pages, list of other titles facing the title page. In a limited edition of 1000 copies reserved for subscribers.16 héliogravures hors-text / 16 B&W illustrations tipped in.
Some foxing to front cover , wear to head and tail of spine with minor loss, see images, overall very good and rare with a complete set of illustrations.

Cover

Spine

illustrations

Books for Trade: Icy, Jacques d’: Suzanne écuyère. Confidences et révélations de la belle Suzanne de X… Sa jeunesse et ses hauts faits dans deux mondes bien différents Collection des Orties Blanches, Paris 1923. Ilustrated by Louis Malteste

January 24, 2020 / Steve M. / Leave a comment

Louis (for Jules) Malteste. Born September 14, 1862 in Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) and died January 25, 1928 in Paris. French author, lithographer, designer and illustrator. “He was the brother of Henri Théodore Malteste, known as Malatesta [1870-1920]. He lived and worked in Paris, where he exhibited in 1897 at the Salon des Cent, in 1902 at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. the humorous press: The Butter Plate , The Black Cat , I know everything , Readings for all , Who reads laughs , etc. He created posters and postcards. ” He was also published in the journal La Plume in 1897. Malteste used the pseudonym Jacques d’Icy for writing sadomasochistic texts. Illustrator of many books.

Icy, Jacques d’: Suzanne écuyère. Confidences et révélations de la belle Suzanne de X… Sa jeunesse et ses hauts faits dans deux mondes bien différents. Collection des Orties Blanches, Paris 1923. 333 printed pages 1 frontispiece, 11 sanguine illustrations by Louis Malteste. Catalogue at the end of the volume. In original Paper wraps over card covers, printed in red and black, cover and spine. original price of 50 francs on spine.