Pleased to announce that, I have obtained a small selection of 4 of the seven titles, written and published by Jean Vergerie, under the La Collection de l’Églantine. imprint.
For which detailed history and creative text, will be provided by my good friend Christophe Bier.
Also coming soon but a much larger project, is the listing and detailed imagery of some 60 Charles Carrington publications, which will be listed in brief as Books for Trade, But will be the basis for my New Collection for Bibliophiles, for which access to, will require a subscription.
The contents of this collection include both openly published and clandestine titles, many illustrated, by the Likes of Van Maele, Avril, Fredillo, as well classical illustrators.
Many copies in mint unopened condition, and a significant number ,where previous description were from “catalogue only”, including some wonderfully decorated examples of the printers, and bookbinders art of the late Victorian period, as well the inimitable engravings of Eugene d’Ete.
There will also be a supplement to this of a small collection of works published by Isidore Liseux, Augustine Brancart, Jules Gay, and Henry Kistaemackers.
Supplementary information and collection history provided by Michael Neale, and bibliographical information courtesy of S.A. Perry.
Finally I am going to link my existing listings with illustrations by Van Maele and add significant others by him to another New Collection, again with the kind support of S.A Perry.
Les Jeux du Plaisir et de la Volupté par une Femme du Monde, avec 16 illustrations.ANONYME [Johannes GROS]
Published by Paris, Au boudoir secret, (Briffaut) (1906).1906 [i.e. circa 1936] 1 volume in-8 (19.5 x 13 cm), paperback, 248- (1) pages. 16 illustrations in black inset. Printed cover in color. Volume in very good condition. Reference: Dutel, Bibliography of erotic works published clandestinely between 1920 and 1970, n ° 1795, indicates: “Original edition published around 1936. It is decorated with 16 illustrations.The book comes out of Darantière presses in Dijon, as does the sequel , “Confessions Libertines ” The advertised print is 600 copies on tinted vergé and 25 copies on vellum Arches. This one, 1 of 600 copies on tinted laid. Very good copy of this book sympathetically illustrated (The illustrations have remained anonymous but are in the style of Luc Lafnet). Very explicit pornographic text.
I am embarking on a short list, of titles which are all , what I refer to as rescued books, this is because although the general condition is at best Fair to Good, they are such rare titles that their importance outweighs any consideration of condition.
R. de B. Voluptueux souvenirs ou Le Souper des douze. Pour la bibliothèque des “Disciples d’Éros” [Maurice Duflou], Romainville. [Paris]1927. Contents 143 pp ,Rebound in red boards. Original frontcover, preserved. 12 B&W inset illustrations by Achille Devéria, reproduced in half-print and drawn in bistre on coated paper. Specifications : In-4 ecu. Book reserved for subscribers only and not for the trade. Edition limited to only 350 copies, this one being no 215/350, on paper Pur Fil Lafuma.
Notes : This work was written to accompany two series of engravings by Devéria: The Five Senses and The Seven Deadly Sins .
Back at last and with an interesting and puzzling edition, which has little in the way of background material to research, there are a few auction records, but as yet I have not found a record of a copy with all the illustrations. The information I can offer is lifted from : Martin Van Maele: An Illustrated Bibliographical Checklist by S. A. Perry which is available on line and linked at the base of the page.
The present copy is, as often is the case with my books, incomplete, having 10 of the 12 illustrations called for, consisting of the frontispiece and 9 engraved plates, as always I request your assistance with ” filling the gaps”, so if anyone has copy of the illustrations required to complete the set, I would be happy to post them on this listing and credit the donor.
Update. 01/06/2020. My thanks to Kyle Strom, for directing me to Luc Binet’s: “Martin Van Maele: ou le diable se cache dans les détails (catalogue raisonné)”, and especially for providing a copy of an image missing from the present volume.
An image I had thought might me the mysterious 12th plate, turned out to be listed in an auction of yet another clandestine edition from 1905 with the artist credited as Fredillo. I am cautious about such matters as I am aware of at least one other title where Van Maele illustrations had been accredited to Fredillo. To avoid confusion I will return to this under a separate post.
Despite the grand claim to be published as part of the series,I cannot locate any other titles in this series by this publisher and given that Mitylene is an ancient archaeological site on Lesbos, we have the ingredients that identify this as a clandestine publication .In this case the publisher is Georges Briffaut, who used the Mitylene location with a number of other descriptors as his clandestine cover, for a small number of titles. With thanks again to S.A Perry, I can offer the following information:- The Leonhardt copy contains a frontispiece + 10 engravings, the Faur copy contains 10 of the 12 etchings, and the Perceau copy contains 11 of the 12 engravings. From the cover: Nouvelle entref illustrée de douze plances hors–texte à l’eau–forte de A. Van Troizem . Briffaut previously published a unique edition in Paris in 1910. Square 8vo. 222pp. Printed on Japon Impérial paper with 41 original watercolors, full page and in-text, by Van Maele. Carrington published an English translation in 1901 titled Correspondence Between Two Young Parisian Ladies . Poulet–Malassis originally published this title in 1868 [although possibly earlier according to Pia 704]
In my opinion the illustrations here, owe a significant debt to those produced by Avril for the 1905 Clandestine Hirsch edition. Listed elsewhere on this site and linked below.
Un été à la Campagne LE CHEFS-D’ŒUVRES DE LA LITÉRATURE GALANTE | [rule] | CORRESPONDANCE | DE DEUX JEUNES PARISIENNES | RECUEILLIE PAR | UN AUTEUR À MODE | [decoration] | À MITYLÈNE | CHEZ LES LIBRAIRIES ASSOCIÉS (Briffaut) [1920] 8vo. (19.3 x 14.2 cm). 186 pp. 10 of 12 hors-texte etchings done in black by Van Troizem, (Martin van Maele). In original publishers card covers printed in red and black, general wear to covers , contents loose and shaken, the illustrations originally tipped in and indexed with roman numerals are now loose.
Something of an oddity, an elaborate clandestine title produced in America, but the story purporting to be Russian in origin and the book production to be French,when in fact it is an elaborate hoax by written by B-movie mogul Val Lewton, producer of the 1942 version of Cat People and the following year’s I Walked with a Zombie
Three Times a Woman, Grushenka: The Story of a Russian Serf Girl Compiled from Contemporary Documents in the Russian Police Files and Private Archives of Russian Libraries Published by Nafkah Press, Paris and New York, 1933. 252 pp, seven sexually explicit black and white plates signed Kyu. In original publishers card covers, printed back and front in elobarate textual design in purple on white. This copy with too many flaws to list, but is complete both in text and illustrations.Claims to be one of 800 copies printed in Dijon, but actually an American publication.
Detail as per listing above, Rare title, complete with general wear. Item is sold as is, World wide postage included in price. Opportunity to purchase a rare erotica at bargain price. Request more detailed description prior to purchase if you wish.
No one knows today who was behind the pseudonym Jean Vergerie. He is the author of 7 works published by Editions Balland in their Collection Eglantine between 1935 and 1938. The original editions were openly published, unlike this one, published clandestinely by Eric Losfeld in the mid-1950s. The original editions were also illustrated, and are now pretty much impossible to find. Anyone who has copies of the originals, who would like to donate images, please get in touch via a contact form.
These novels are all, without exception, erotic sado-masochistic tales of the worst or the best kind, depending on whether or not to consider Jean Vergerie as the worthy descendant of the Marquis de Sade in the twentieth century. Violence, torture, hellish machinery, monstrous, realistic or fantasized tales, everything is there to make these works the symbols of a literature apart in the production of this period.
VERGERIE, Jean, pseud. – Histoire de Priska. Éditions de la Hippogriffe [c. 1955]. 4to. pp. 154+(3).Pink cover printed in black. Copy in very good condition, light spotting to leading edge of front cover, rag paper. A reprint of L’Enfer des voluptés by Jean Vergerie, published by Collection de l’Eglantine, Boulogne-sur-Seine, 1937. The Losfeld reprint was Prosecuted in July 1962. – Bibliothèque Nationale: 8-Y2-90000(1264) Dutel 1702. (Rare)
Who is the Artist? Illustrations from Nell in Bridewell (Lenchen im Zuchthause) | (Society of British Bibliophiles, Paris, 1900, The illustrations were issued separately to the book. Carrington, references them as by German Artists familiar with the costumes and customs of the time. I wonder if they were originally illustrations for the first German edition, but I cannot find a copy to reference. Any ideas please complete a contact sheet.
This is yet another title where the size of the book,its binding , age and rarity, made flat scanning impossible, so the images below are photographic, I am aware that they are not perfectly square or flat, but they are the best I can that I can do with available resources. In any case I think they look pretty good.
A slight departure, In that this book is not strictly speaking, “erotica”, It is however a clandestine publication, The Lutetian Bibliophiles Society actually being our old pal Charles Carrington.
This is the first English translation (by some considerable number of years), of Barbey d’Aurevilly’s masterpiece of decadent literature, “Les Diaboliques” a sort of mixture of crime, horror and the supernatural, more closely related to the Gothic novels of the late 1700’s than the erotica of the Fin de Siecle 1890’s. Originally published as individual short stories, the collection was published as Les Diaboliques, in October 1874. In December 1874, the book was seized and prosecuted as an offence to public morality, In 1875 the charges were dismissed. As is often the case, the scandal made the book more popular, despite this, it was not reprinted until 1882 in an edition revised by Barbey and considered the definitive French language edition; this anonymous translation published clandestinely by Carrington in 1900 is based on the 1882 edition. The entire books is dedicated to strange stories of dangerous women, the French title Les Diaboliques, literally translates to “devilish”, but is generally accepted as “The She Devils”, not to be confused with the 1958 Ophelia Press title of that name which is an English translation of Piere Louys’ “Trois Filles et leur Mere”
A fascinating character in his own right, Barbey was a great friend of Baudelaire and had attempted to assist him in the 1850’s when “Le Fleurs du Mal” was prosecuted. In his later years he was feted by writers such as Leon Bloy and J.K Huysmans.He died on April 23 rd 1899.
For an updated translation with a useful introduction see :-
WEIRD WOMEN ;The Crimson Curtain; Happiness in Crime; A Dinner of Atheists; A Woman’s Vengence, TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH of Barbey d’Aurevilly WITH EIGHT WOOD ENGRAVINGS. LONDON. PRIVATELY PRINTED. LUTETIAN BIBLIOPHILES’ SOCIETY MCM. (1900).12mo. (16 x 19.5 x 6 c.m) xv + 490pp. Two volumes in one. Limited edition of 500 copies on Van Gelder. 13 wood-engraved plates. Frontispiece by Lambrecht + [8 by Emile Mas and 4 by Ren = René Lelong], all engraved by Eugene Dété. Foreword by Charles Carrington. Two stories in the book not listed on the title page: Don Juan’s Proudest Triumph and What Lay beneath the Cards. (Library of Congress: PQ2189.B32 D57.)
Note, The title page indicates eight wood engravings, The content actually delivers; Frontispiece and 2 engravings for each of the six short stories.
A very beautiful book (no illustrations), which nicely combines my interest in early 20th century flagellation literature, and mid century clandestine publishing. This particular book , being a clandestine Losfeld title which I have never seen before, and it is a reprint of a work first published by Librairie Générale, Paris, 1931.
Alan Mac Clyde, Edith Kindler, Joan Spanking and Jean de La Beuque fils are pseudonyms for the author of several pornographic novels published in the 1930s by the Librairie Générale (84, Boulevard Diderot, Paris) and Librairie Artistique et Édition Parisienne Rèunies, imprints of Paul Brenet, a publisher specializing in flagellation and BDSM works.Robert Mérodack , has suggested that behind this pseudonym is hidden Maurice Renard (1875–1939) French author of several science fiction novels among which Le Docteur Lerne, sous-dieu, Le Péril bleu and Les Mains d’Orlac. His argument is based on a passage of La Reine cravache where Edith Kindler wrote «taxées de fantaisistes que certain auteur français de grand talent accorde à son héros le docteur Lerne, qu’il qualifie de sous dieu».
Mac Clyde, Alan, Dressage, Editions du Chinois (Eric Losfeld), 1950. 8vo. pp. 182. 1 ff. Coverture en papier gris-vert imprimèe en noir. Printed 15th May 1950. in original covers, pages uncut, Fine copy. Dutel,[15] 1435.[16]
Originally published :-
Mac Clyde, Alan, Dressage, Librairie Générale, 1931. 8vo. pp. 206. Illustrated by Jéo [J.B., Ely Costes et Carlo]. Illustrated cover by Jéo. BnF:[3] “RES P- Y2- 939”. BnF:[3] “8- Y2- 90000(1734)”. KI:[4]”843.8 M126 d7 1932″. [6]
A very nice clandestine publication, text only and in a very nice binding so awkward to provide images, but of interest to the serious erotic bibliophile.
Pierrot: Séduction. Jeune amours au chateau, à la pension. (Suivi de quatre pièces célèbres: L’Examen de Flora, Les Filles de Loth, L’Ode à Priape, Deux Gougnottes).: En vente partout et nulle part [n.p. Paris, Briffaut], 1910. 8 °. 250 p.. In a half leather fine binding on coloured boards, 5 raised bands, gilded decoration to head and tail of spine, title ” Pierrot – Séduction -Divers” in gilt lettering on spine. All page edges in gilt. Original covers preserved printed in red and black on orange card covers, title page printed in red and black, each of the additional texts have their own half-title. Produced in a limited edition of 350 copies this copy unnumbered. Bookplate pasted inside front board. Very good near fine condition, A rare title. My copy appears to differ from two others listed on the web.
There appears to be some confusion as to who Pierrot was, and it is suggested that he may be a Dr Brennus, not to be confused with Don Brennus Alera, that is just lazy bibliography.
