Update 14/12/2It appears that there was more missing than we assumed, so now we are light not one but two illustrations. My initial though is that there was possibly a separate loose illustration, certainly there are no hors-text in our copy. and there does not appear to be any loss of text.

More on this at  later date, Many thinks, to Sheryl Perry.

A volume in 8 (total size 23 x 17) of 182 p. cipher, front cover preserved, uncropped (except at the top).
Notice of edition of 500 copies, n° 217. Printing on beautiful rives paper.
Large art nouveau initials in black and red engraved on wood and 16 illustrations (in text and out of text) colored with a watercolor stencil by Martin Van Maele.
First illustrated edition.
Ex-libris Alfred Muranyi Roho, with mention S. Della Bella fecit (…), A. Hartmann excudit Vienna 1914.
Contemporary binding, half red leather with corners (basane?), gilded head, decorated ribbed spine.
Binding in good condition but a little rubbed (corners, caps, joints) with small superficial gaps in skin, slightly larger scratches on the second cover, small gaps in paper on the cuts, slightly soiled leather. Interior in good condition, some minor foxing and dirt, small folds on the cover.

Update 20/11/24

A breathless Watson dashes into Homes’ study, roughly pushing  Mrs Hudson, crashing to the floor in an explosion of tea, syringes and an explosion of skirts and underwear, but curiously  “no pantaloons, didn’t realise she had one of them”,  thought Watson. Absent mindedly calming a frontal trouser disturbance, he accosted Holmes, and panting madly with his Smith and Wesson clutched in his trembling hand, cocked and in danger of  shooting up, (The gun not Holmes), well something had to!, Holmes you will not be able to deduce this time.

Holmes observed his simple minded but enthusiastic side kick, and taking a huge sniff of his Borkum Riff (no 33a) snuff , liberally laced with raw Bolivian cocaine, he looked down on his friend, difficult when sitting down and the object of your pity standing, but there are special degrees of superiority, and some people look down on everyone regardless of their own position.

“Elementary my dear Watson” said Holmes, “Oh  shit not again” thought Watson. —- It was a highly skilled book detective, a worthy opponent I must  say, and surprisingly, even the dastardly Moriarty ( had to. Sorry!) fears this person who is of the Female persuasion and therefore a threat to all men. Yes Watson “Sheryl Perry” had the missing cover, as I told you but a week ago we must find the thief but due to my fearsome reputation and skills I have outwitted the culprit and the missing pages have been returned!, “But how” cried Watson falling to his knees and blowing his brains out and fatally wounding Mrs Watson with the ricochet.

Completely oblivious to the chaos around him Holmes sliding from  his chair , a crushed silk handkerchief, made from tiny silkworms only found in New Mexico,  wound tightly around his left upper arm, with his last breath whispered ” she pasted it in an e-mail to Steve M he copied me in and posted me this beautiful silk handkerchief , a gift of adm………………

( cue: faint female laughter and a softly whispered ” Sheryl, Holmes is left handed!)

 Thanks to Sheryl who located the missing pages. My apologies to her and the other person that reads my blog.. Who no doubt will be relieved to know that my next skit will be in the style of  Georges Bataille.

The Evidence

Jean de Villiot: Volées de bois vert – Librairie des Bibliophiles Parisiens-Une pelote de ficelle; Juanita; La Jolie secrétaire; “Deux sur Dix”, orné d’aquarelles. – Martin Van Maele – Paris 1905.

Update and a confession, 29/10/24. Due to editorial incompetence and impending senility, I Steve M, confess to having missed an image to be inserted into this listing, I didn’t miss it in the original imaging exercise, but in the edit, to upload and insert the images in the post, I had arrogantly assumed that my final draft was correct, but when I reviewed an earlier draft I discovered the missing image ( now here below) as the second illustrated image, in its first unaligned state. Fixed now and this book does indeed have the full fifteen illustrations as per the description ( now received) from Ezra at Ivan Stormgart Books, ( more of this later). As its just before 00:60 here, and sadly my most lucid time of day, I shall update this post now, and celebrate it as a success, before I find another way to mess things up.

A very rare and beautiful, clandestine, Carrington and another of my book rescue projects, yet again I have to state, “You cannot judge a book by its cover”, because this book doesn’t have one, and in this case that presents a quandary.

This was published as a clandestine title  by, “Librairie des Bibliophiles Parisiens” and in the series “La Flagellation à Travers le Monde”.  So this book lacks a title page, which would have stated that information, and also, (most likely), would have been a lavish production, in two colours, with an identical paper outer cover over plain card boards.

What I have in hand,  is a plain spine and back cover, and the first page is the half title ” Une Pelote de ficelle”.  The first of the four short stories that make up this book.

At a guess I am missing the front cover (plain or otherwise) ; one or two blank pages; a half title , limitation on verso; possibly, a frontispiece; and a title page ( more about the possibility of a missing illustration below);

It is also possible that it could have had a clandestine printed paper cover with misleading information about author; publisher; place and date, etc.

Carrington often did this, and I do have a number of other titles in my collection that feature this deception.

Oddly despite having  clandestine covers,  many of these Carrington’s are packed with his self aggrandisement, and masses of lavish adverts for his other books.

None of that, at all in this book. I think this is the first completely anonymous Carrington I have ever seen!

Clandestine copies are hard enough to deal with, without removing all the identifying features, but it does elevate my interest and keep me amused.

Well in true Holmesian fashion, what can we deduce from the above information? First of all,  someone has seen this book because we have an author,  publisher, series and date.

Then we have brief bibliographic information, courtesy of, Sheryl Straight at The Erotica Bibliophile, who offers,  good in depth links, to Van Maele and Carrington,

That then leads us to ask where the origin of that information stems from? Is it another bibliographer that has not seen a copy of the book, and just copied it forward from another source.?

Well only further investigation will bring us to an elementary conclusion.

There are some minimal references to a “Druot” auction but as far as I can ascertain this states that, 14 signed watercolors were present in the auction copy.

There is a note that I must hunt down. That references 15 illustration, but this is possibly from a 1990’s book catalogue, I do have a contact, in that book dealership, so hopefully they might have an archive copy of the catalogue:-
And they did

VOLEES DE BOIS VERT. Une Pelote de Ficelle. – Juanita. – La Jolie secretaire. – Deux sur Dix. Ouvrage orne d’aquarelles.

Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles Parisiens [Charles Carrington], 1905.

8vo. pp. [iv]+181+[ii]. Fifteen watercolour illustrations, more galante than indecent, and attractive art-nouveau initials. No. 43 of 500 copies. The imprint is partially obscured by the sticker of Collection Precieux, of 73 faubourg Poissonniere, Paris, presumably a bookseller. One of Carrington’s many semi-erotic cover items involving flagellation.

Rebound in plain blue buckram. Binding a little worn at the extremities, but internally clean and sound.

So to analyse this, first I must rather churlishly, point out  that the pagination definitely ends at 182, a evidenced by the last watercolour, in this listing which is numbered 182. as for the [iv], preceding the numbered main text block, we shall consider our options, after we quickly resolve the [ii], at the end of the book which are already accounted for as,Table des Matiers ,with printer detail on verso.

So back to the front [iv] which if we dismiss the outer paper wraps, which undoubtedly did exist,  our description  above states that the book is rebound, so not in a publisher’s binding., meaning it was initially released, in French wraps, over plain card covers, which we have evidence of with our book. However the description mentions a book shop sticker, partially obscuring the imprint which would be Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles Parisiens [Charles Carrington], 1905.

Nether an external wrap or the card covers would be considered for  page count.  Just as the card cover at the back of the  book is not part of the page count.

So we know it have  the essential information that identifies the edition, but the description does not mention “original covers” preserved or  ” bound in”, which it almost certainly would  reference, if they were present or even partially present, this is a book dealers catalogue, and a very experienced one, he is unlikely to have missed such a significant selling point. And in any case original covers do not tally in a page count either.

So it begins to become clear , that the title page is the one that identifies the Imprint, that has the sticker on it. Not unusual as many bookshops in France used to brand both the cover and  title page, which were often twins in appearance. I guess the rationale for this was to discourage thefts, its easy to remove an outer cover which is effectively a light weight envelope, deigned to be disposable or bound in when its wealthy owner puts a luxury binding on it.

So we a re left with two sides of paper and we know now that there was no frontispiece, we know it had a limitation so that accounts for two of our [iv], I favour a half title, which appear in pretty much all Carrington publications prior to the title page, often with a blank verso which faces the tile page. so we have our [iv],

The ,half title, and the title page, with limitation on verso of either one and potentially a blank verso on the other.

So i deduce we are only looking for two sheets of paper

Possibly ripped off by some thief, now we move on to the real detective work “Find the missing pages”; No my dear Watson, said Holmes removing the still bloody syringe from his arm. ” Find the thief!”….

I’ll settle for some kind individual saying they have a copy and telling me what the blue blazes is on the front two pages.

Elementary my dear reader!

Well if I have failed to bore you to death, by which outcome, I shall be extremely disappointed. I must now consider “Dutel” or even “Guacamole” either of which are likely to drive my fragile mind to a state of utter confusion and possible suicidal thinking. Wish me luck.

Damn,  I’ve forgotten something? ………… Ah yes! The Book. Here it is—-:-

Half Title- Un Pelote de ficelle

Jean de Villiot: Volées de bois vert – Librairie des Bibliophiles Parisiens-Une pelote de ficelle; Juanita; La Jolie secrétaire; “Deux sur Dix”, orné d’aquarelles. – Martin Van Maele – Paris 1905.

From the series La Flagellation à Travers le Monde.(21.5 x 14 cm). 182 pp. 14 signed watercolors hors-texte by Van Maele, signed with his monogram. Printed by Veuve Félix Guy à Alençon,  in a limited edition of 500 copies. Printed on paper watermarked Rives.

(Hotel Drouot: Importante Bibliothèque d’Ouvrages Érotiques, 1987, lot 256. Private collection)

This Book

Jean de Villot : Volées de bois vert:  4 short erotic stories on the theme of flagellation; Une pelote de ficelle; Juanita; La Jolie secrétaire and Deux sur Dix, the title of the  book is printed atop each second facing page, with the title of each short story printed atop the opposite page.

On this basis the pagination would commence with the half title: – “Une Pelote de ficelle” (above) as 1; blank verso at 2; Followed by watercolour page, (listed below), to page 40;  Then “Jaunita” page 40-95″; La Jolie secrétaire” page 96-156 ;  “Deux sur Dix” page 157-182; followed by Table des Matiers ,with printer detail on verso.

All the watercolours are signed with Van Maele’s Motif.

See Also

From The Erotic Bibliophile:-

Checklist of Martin Van Maele’s Erotic Works

Charles Carrington Bibliography by Title

On this site:-

Charles Carrington Collection: Catalogue de Levres Rare. Librairie Ch.Carrington 13 Faubourg Montmartre Paris n.d |(1901).

Clandestine Erotica: Some thoughts on Clandestine/Defiant Literature and the battle against Censorship

AND Of Course if anyone has a good image of the original cover, title page or any illustration that might be missing from this listing  image please complete a contact form