This tiny book, is a bibliographic mystery, well at least it is to me, as I am unable to locate any reference to it. So as always in these cases I would very much appreciate any information that anyone can offer. The illustrations that accompany the book are delightful, and I guess them to be circa 1930. But that is all I have, a guess.
Title Page
Contes Libertins, par Grecourt, Nogaret,Vergier, Piron etc… n.p , n.d, Clandestine publication C 1930? In original publishers, anonymous card covers, title printed in black on front, No print or publication details, a clandestine publication. 120 numbered pages, (12.5 x 8 cm) with blanks for placement of tipped in, unsigned colour illustrations, which are contained in an opaque folder. Each of the eight illustrations is indexed with a title and page placement number. Overall condition of book is good, being rather crumpled and separating from cover at the centre of the book (but holding), the illustrations are in very good near fine condition.
Another rare Carrington, with Van Maele illustrations, this one a fairly recent acquisition, and yet another example of the quality of Carrington publications, therefore as much attention given to text and page decorations as the illustrations. This will have been a later rebind as the original covers are only partially preserved.
Title Page
Jean de Villiot, La Flagellation Amoureuse; DANS L’HISTOIRE DES MŒURS ET DANS LA LITTÉRATURE SUIVIE DE La Flagellation des Femmes EN FRANCE SOUS LA REVOLUTION ET LA TERREUR BLANCHE Cinq eaux-fortes de MARTIN VAN MAELE PARIS CHARLES CARRINGTON, LIBRAIRIE-EDITEUR 13, Faubourg Montmartre, 1904. 12.7cm. x 21.59cm. 240pp. Printed on laid paper by Veuve Félix Guy et Cie, 20th April 1904. Title page printed in orange and black. Head and tail pieces. Decorative first letter to each chapter. 5 full-page engravings (signed) by Martin van Maele with tissue guards .
This Book: Rebound in quarter black leather on cream textured boards, spine decorated with 4 gilt fluerons, 4 raised bands , lined in gilt, author and title stamped in gilt lettering. Original front and back covers, cropped and pasted on card inserts. Some light sporadic foxing but overall in very good condition.
Another title for the true bibliophile, as this is a text without illustrations, it does however have the most extraordinary leather binding, with raised pornographic images on front, spine and back of the book, where there is also the artists signature, unfortunately undecipherable, but appears to be arabic? . I have taken multiple images of the covers with different light settings, to give as much detail as possible. This is one of those items where it would be good to have more information, so please do complete a contact form if you can offer any information to enhance the listing.
The Covers
Front Board (light)
Front Board (Medium)
Front Board (Dark)
Back Board (Light)
Back Board (Dark)
Back Board (Close up)
Signature
Spine and Front (Dark)
Spine and back (Light)
Spine and back (Dark)
Title page and limitation
ARETINO, Pietro. – Les Sonnets luxurieux du divin Pietro Aretino. Texte italien, le seul authentique et traduction littérale par le Traducteur des Ragionamenti.
Avec un Notice sur les Sonnets luxurieux, l’époque de leur composition, les rapports de l’Aretin avec la Courde Rome, et sur les dessins de Jules Romains gravés par Marc-Antoine. Paris : 1882. 8vo. pp. cxx+79. No. 2 de la Collection dite Musée secret du Bibliophile. Limited to 100 copies.
THIS BOOK: Rebound in heavy calf leather, with raised pornographic signed illustrations, on Front, Back and Spine. with original publishers, cream coloured, card wraps , including spine, preserved . CXX (120 pages) Notes (French). 79 pages of Sonnets, in original Italian, with French translations on facing pages. Printed by A.-H Becus, Boulevard de Vaugirard, 112. Leather covers with some rubbing to high spots. (21 x 14 cm) contents clean, complete and near fine. A unique copy of a rare title.
A very odd listing, on a site where odd is the norm. This one is a collection of extracts from various texts throughout French history that have featured the enema as a fetishist device. It is not unusual for the enema to appear in flagellation novels, but it appears that it has a long and distinguished (or should that be disgusting?) history. This places it more in the Curiosa/ Fetish category than mainstream erotica. I have a significant number of publications by Liseux and Carrington , that explore classical erotic texts and curious bypaths of deviance. It is not unusual to find anti-clerical and anti- royalist texts, but in the world of erotica nothing is sacred, and this rather delightful tome takes a swipe at the bizarre practices of the medical profession throughout history. So by all means stand and applaud for the medics, but be careful when you bend over.
Frontispiece and Title Page
Claude de Saint-Hieble, L’Instrument des apothicaires, Le Clystère dans l’humour et la litérature. DES Anecdotes de Tallemant des Réaux, Saint-Simon, etc. L’éloge de la seringue, réimpression complète.Ma tante Geneviève, Le Mousquetaire à genoux. Le cas Antoinette Boyau ,Le petit Parnasse des Apothicaires:Grécourt, Collier, La Fontaine, Du- laurens, Béranger, etc., etc. 11 Vignettes de M. VAN MAEL [sic] 7 hors texte d’après les gravures de l’èpoque | [3 ornaments] | COLLECTION DES AMIS DU BON VIEUX TEMPS| Jean FORT, éditeur | 73, Faubourg Poissonnière, 73 [n.d., c. 1920].
This Book. Rebound in quarter beige leather with five raised bands , lined in gilt with author and title in gilt, on mottled boards, lined with pink paper. Original covers preserved. 8vo. (21.8 x 13.7 cm). 224 pp. 11 large head-pieces signed with Van Maele’s monogram. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies on Holland, which contain the signed Van Maele frontispiece, lacking in the rest of the edition. External light wear and rubbing to spine , and edges, internally complete and only marred by discolouration where the glossy images have darkened the facing pages.
Original Cover
Signed Van Maele Frontis
Notice of Limitation
Head Piece 1
Engraving 1
Head Piece 2
Head Piece 3
Engraving 2
Head Piece 4
Engraving 3
Head Piece 5
Head Piece 6
Engraving 4
Head Piece 7
Head Piece 8
Engraving 5
Head Piece 9
Engraving 6
Head Piece 10
Engraving 7
Head Piece 11
Bibliographical information.
On the Internet, several sites present this book as a pornographic work of Pierre Mac Orlan devoted to klysmaphilia. The defenders of this refreshing, but not very common practice will be disappointed. In reality, Mac Orlan wrote only a few pages to introduce an anthology of old texts devoted to the clystère. This is a true work of scholarship on a little explored subject, so much so that L’Instrument des Apothicaires is found on the shelves of several libraries of medicine. Nevertheless, the intention of the author is clear: this is frankly a broad joke, which he clearly indicates in his preface: “Nous avons fait en quelque sorte une anthologie, un livre d’or du clystère, à travers cinq siècles de badinage et d’humour, et c’est, je crois, dans le coin des humoristes qu’il convient de placer cet ouvrage sur les rayons de toute bibliothèque.” (We have to some extent made an anthology, a book on the clystère, through five centuries of banter and humour, and it is, I believe, in the corner of the humorists whom it is advisable to place this work on the shelves of any library.) For the discourse of this particular subject, Pierre Mac Orlan chose an original pseudonym, but completely fitting since the sureau hièble (Sambucus ebulus ) is a plant of which the leaves and the roots are purgative and sudorific. On rapprochera cet emprunt à la pharmacopée du Docteur Fowler de Maisons de flagellation.
Perry, S. A.. Martin Van Maele: An Illustrated Bibliographical Checklist (Kindle Locations 379-387). . Kindle Edition.
This Book is for Sale
This Book
Claude de Saint-Hieble, L’Instrument des apothicaires, (Collection des amis du bon vieux temps) Jean Fort. Paris n.d. 1920. illustrated by Martin Van Maele.
Not erotica, but more esoterica/curiosa. Not the usual flagellation theme but a story about a religious cult. Still it is number 5 in the Select Bibliotheque series, and very rare, benefiting from an early rebind, (1908), it is also exceptionally well preserved.
Prospectus and Title Page.
BRÉVANNES, Roland. – La Papesse Noire. Massy (Seine-et-Oise): Select Bibliothèque, 1907. In-16, 252 pages +. Cover illustration and 7 ( 1 double page),black and white illustrations signed “Mas”. Bound in blue cloth over marbled blue boards, Author and tile in gilt on dark red label on spine, embossed in gilt at base of spine “1907 – A.L.C 1908″.Original owners bookplate pasted on inner board. Original illustrated covers preserved, including spine printed in red and black, original price of Fr 5. Contents: 3 page preface, 249 numbered pages, including 10 pages ” La Rose D’Estrella” an extract from “Les Griffes du Sphinx” + table of contents. Followed by a 6 page catalogue of other titles, including a splendid black and white illustration, of the cover of “Fleur vénéneuse”.
Extremely well preserved copy of a very rare title.
Bit of a surprise this one, a clandestine Losfeld that I have never seen before, and completely anonymous, no text just illustrations, no research material, available.
Pat Kearney lists it thus :-
QU’EN PENSEZ-VOUS? n.p., n.d. [c.1958]. 8°. 16 ff.
Dutel 2284. An album of erotic illustrations used by Losfeld in his
other publications. – No repository copy found.
The reference to Dutel presumably says the same but in French.
Title Page
QU’EN PENSEZ-VOUS? n.p., n.d. [c.1958] (Losfeld). In original, publishers textured cream coloured card covers, title in purple on front cover, otherwise completely anonymous. (23 x 14.5 cm),blank ffep, half title, Title Page, blank verso, followed by 21 illustrations on 22 pages (inc 1 double page illustration) all printed in black on thick card. Absolutely no text or publication details.
Rare erotic work of the 1930s, signed by a certain Claude de Launies, a pseudonym behind which Renée Dunan (1892-1936 or 1944), a pioneer of the feminine, or perhaps Johannès Gros (?-1936/37) could hide. The book was published by Maurice DUFLOU (1885-1951), who used for the occasion a fictitious cover, “Sous le signe du grand écart”. It follows the sexual adventures of a young American woman, Marjorie. It is set on the ocean liner “Normandy”, on which she embarked from New York, that she will be seduced by a stranger, before perfecting her sexual knowledge in Paris where, as she says, she intends to “learn love”. For, you imagine, to believe the books and her friends, it would only be in Paris that we know how to dress… and undress.” The clichés have a hard life… Whether or not Paris deserves its reputation as the capital of love, Marjorie will have fun in every sense of the word: sodomy, lesbianism, sadomasochism, several affairs, “tester” of lovers for a Countess, etc. Almost everything goes with delight! Pleasant curiosa, fun and well written enough for the genre.
Title Page and Limitation
CROISIÈRE AMOUREUSE, roman érotique de Claude de LAUNIES, illustré en couleurs – EO, New-York – Paris, Sous le signe du grand écart [Maurice Dulflou], New York – Paris [Paris], no date, printing [around 1937] paperback, in-8 (about 21.5 H x 15 L cm) – (3 ff.) – 151-[1] – (1 ff.) cream-coloured textured wraps titled in blue; on front cover only, over plain card covers. With 12 free compositions in colours, unsigned, 12 off-texts (approx. 16.8 H x 11.2 L cm with about 8 mm bowls; drawings of approx. 15 H x 9.5 L cm) Text decorated with 9 wood cuts in bistre / red, attributed by Dutel to Louis BERTHOMMÉ SAINT-ANDRÉ (1905-1977) 2 headings (the first repeated five times; the second, four times), 6 cul-de-lamps and 1 title sticker. 120/ 350 ex. of the current print on velin pur fil.
Condition: Cover/ shirt: a little shabby, with some smudges.. There are various small spots or freckles on the first plate, and several smudges, especially at the back head (which seems to have been glued) and at the top right on the second plate, at the level of an old tear (about 4 cm) that has been (mischievously) restored (glued and paper inside). In addition, small slits in the head and tail of the back (about 2 cm and 1 cm). Brown traces of adhesive on the inner covers (likely adhesives of an old protection), with a slight transfer on the half title and the last page (see images) . Top slice a little dusty. Otherwise, nice overall freshness, generally clean if not a few small freckles isolated or discharges on some sheets: p. 8-10 (8 mm), 27 (gutter), 62-64 (lower corners), 70, p. 79, p. 88 – Text may be slightly affected (p. 8-10 or p. 88), but engravings are spared. A small line of zig-zag ink (8 mm) p. 119 at the gutter
20. LAUNIES, (Claude de). – Croisière amoureuse.
New York, Paris, sous le signe du Grande Ecart [c.
1937]. 8vo. pp. 152. Twelve colour plates and many
culs-de-lampe, the latter being designed by Berthommé
Saint-André. Limited to 352 copies. [No repository
copies located, but cited in the important “Curiosa”
auction held at Nouveau Drouot on March 11th 1987,
lot no. 70. Dutel, no. 1317.]
To offer information or pose any questions, please complete the contact form.
This one is for the bibliophiles, no illustrations! A very rare item, effectively a pornographic novelette, written in letter form, a salacious account of an alleged visit by an English doctor to a convent prison in Siberia, where he witnesses and records the most severe of tortures and punishments to the female inmates, by which he finds himself extremely aroused, and following his departure from said institution seeks to re-enact his experience by employing prostitutes versed in the fetishist arts. Strong stuff not for the faint hearted. And yes it is in English, a French version was published in a compendium of flagellation material also by Carrington but minus the sexual content.
Title Page
Curious Sidelights of Social History: How Women are Flogged in Russian Prisons, Narrative of a Visit to a Convent Prison in Siberia, by an English Doctor. Paris, Librairie des Bibliophiles, 13 Faubourg Montmarte,1899. In original publishers paper wraps, printed in red and black on a salmon pink paper, over plain card covers. List of English Publications printed on back cover, interestingly this is clearly over-stamped “12 Jan 1903”, Title page duplicates the cover and is also printed in red and black. Contents. 12.07cm. x 19.69cm. xvii + 48pp. Printed on laid paper. Condition, Under a protective opaque sleeve, the book is complete, but shaken, stitching visible, in paper wrap, some light foxing to front cover and spine, Very Good.
This title is from the Michael Neal Collection
Front Cover
Statement
Sample text
sample text
Back Cover
The date stamp, obviously a later addition at the top of the back cover is possibly another indication that the books were stored in sheets and wrappers added when a copy was ordered, thus explaining some confusion caused to bibliographers, when advertisements for titles often list books, printed years after the publication of the book under scrutiny.
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How Women are Flogged Flogged in Russian Prisons
Narrative of a visit to a convent prison in Siberia by an English doctor. Paris: Libraire des Bibliophiles, 1899.
12.07cm. x 19.69cm. xvii + 48pp. Printed on laid paper. Title page printed in red and black.
A note in the Kinsey copy states: “More erotic than the French version in Villiot’s Curiosities et Anecdotes de flagellation”.
A rare and controversial item, not published until after the death of the author, originally published in text only by Simon Kra around 1926, followed by a number of clandestine editions, some allegedly illustrated, but difficult to authenticate as to whether the illustrations were issued with the book or were extra illustrated by owners of the various editions of the book. For our example this is not a problem because the illustrations clearly belong to the scenarios offered up in the text. The artist remains anonymous, but has been accredited elsewhere to Peter Schem, and I am inclined to agree with this as I have owned other titles attributed to Schem.
As always with delicately coloured illustrations, it is difficult to do them justice with digital imagery and the tendency is to try and enhance the colouration, I have resisted that temptation in this listing and the images are as close as I can get to the originals. A lovely copy of a rare and interesting title and hard to believe it is now over 70 years old.
Title Page
Pierre Louys: Manuel de civilité pour les petites filles à l’usage des maisons d’éducation. n.p. Londres (Nice) MCMXLVIII, (1938). 105/271 copies “pour un groupe d’amateurs” on Vélin de Rives (total edition 299). The edition is illustrated with 12 clearly erotic original lithographs on panels that have been coloured by hand. As issued in off white textured slip case with slightly dirty edges and corners. Quarto (25 x 17 cm.). 104 pp., 4 ff. as loose gatherings, 12 aquarelles in pochoir. Printed wrappers in black and pale green, printed throughout in green and black. With an interesting limitation notice.
