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By continuing and scrolling down you declare you are okay with viewing such material.  For the record, the subject matter is erotic art; pertinent inter alia to the following works of literature:

01. — 📙 The Kama Sutra (c. 369 BCE)
02. — 📙 The Arabian Nights (10^th c. onward)
03. — 📙 The Perfumed Garden (15^th c.)
04. — 📙 The Carnal Prayer Mat (1696)
05. — 📙 Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748)
06. — 📙 Delta of Venus (1940s, published: 1977)
…….
……..
09. — 📙 The Story of O (1954) (go down below)

I dig‥ I discover‥ I devour‥

10. — Exhibits
11. — Selcted bibliography

What follows is in no small part resultant from coming across the following auction house’s catalogue:

Research for “The Significance of Literature” is without fear and most certainly does not show favour of any flavour yet, it’s (a) arduous and, (b) prone to taking one well off course (or ‘tangent’ to, e.g., unknown seas that are oceans away from the oil slicked shipping lanes). ^[1] [2]  Yes, the shoulders are verily Norton’s (and the like) but, we all have a guiding star and, whilst I must have known subconsciously what I now know overtly, I didn’t really realise until finally getting the point and purpose of Morrison’s Unspeakable Unspoken. ^[3]  By necessity and by virtue of being, one must begin somewhere before being able to depart on their own voyage (crafting out an odyssey that you, they and I all know, has been embarked upon time-n’-again since time immemorial). Alas (واحسرتاه) my reckoning and deeper understanding of Toni Morrison happened after that semester’s finals but, such occurrences of “sod\s law” (I am learning mate) I know now, to be the way of things (an annoyance sent from up on high to test us lowly characters of clay).

— § —

Exhibits

Of which, you will see, there are many.

Richard Burton’s Kama Sutra

Richard Burton’s translation of The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana. London and Benares: for the Hindoo Kama Shastra Society, 1883.

A man

^ This rare first edition of adventurer Richard Burton’s translation of The Kama Sutra was the first to introduce the radically different Eastern conception of sexuality to 19^th c. Europe. This is the first translation into a European language of the central text of Asian erotology, and the basis of all other European translations. The Kama Shastra Society had a membership of two: Burton and ‘Bunny’ Arbuthnot, a close friend since their days in India in the 1850s and a fellow student of Hindu erotic literature. The Obscene Publications Act of 1857 applied only to publicly circulated material; the ‘Society’ circumvented its strictures and its publications were anonymous. But it was short-lived, commencing with this work and ending with Burton’s death in 1890. As early as 1923 Penzer noted that ‘the edition in parts was soon exhausted, and is now practically unobtainable. By the by, Richard Burton truly is something else.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
^ The book up for auction is one of just 250 copies printed, and remains the basis of all other European translations of this central text through the swinging Sixties and down to the present day. 7 parts in 1 volume, octavo (c.251 x c.152 mm). Additional general title-page printed in red and black. (Small abrasion in the blank margin of the last leaf.) Contemporary black cloth, the upper side titled in gilt, both sides with a ruled border blocked in blind, endpapers printed with an all-over foliate pattern (bound without the paper wrappers, cloth corners rubbed, light wear to the edges); later green half morocco chemise and slipcase. Provenance: Joseph F. Milligan of Leeds, bookseller (small label) — J.B. Rund (bookplate)

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana — The Classic Burton Translation

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana — The Classic Burton Translation

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana — The Classic Burton Translation

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana — The Classic Burton Translation

— § —

Histoire d’O

^ The cover of one of the most influential erotic texts of the 20th c. One of only 600 copies, this one with the fine Bellmer etching found in less than half of the edition. ^ Anne Desclos (1907-1998) began Histoire d’O — The Story of O — as a private lover letter to Jean Paulhan, a towering literary figure, in part to keep the attention of her lover, in part responding to his quip that women were incapable of writing erotica. Proven wrong, Paulhan urged her to publish, and took the manuscript to Pauvert who, after an overnight reading, exclaimed ‘it’s marvellous, it’ll spark a revolution’. Histoire d’O became an unqualified commercial success (Desclos initially used the pseudonym: Pauline Reage). The identity of its author caused intense speculation, many doubting that it could be the work of a woman, let alone the demure and bookish Desclos, who denied authorship for four decades. In February 1955 Histoire d’O won the literature prize ‘Prix des Deux Magots’, which did not stop French authorities from bringing obscenity charges against the publisher. These were dropped, but a publicity ban was imposed for a number of years.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Octavo (184 x 115mm). Etched vignette by Bellmer on the title page. Red half morocco by Gauché, signed, with the original yellow printed wrappers bound-in, black morocco spine label gilt (spine lightly and evenly faded).

Story of O (French: Histoire d’O) is an erotic novel published in 1954 by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage. Desclos did not reveal herself as the author for forty years after the initial publication and says she wrote the novel as a series of love letters to her lover Jean Paulhan. Paulhan was an admirer of the work of the Marquis de Sade and we note that Story of O is similar to the obsesions of the Marquis’s works: love, dominance and submission.

Story of O (French: Histoire d’O) is an erotic novel published in 1954 by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage. Desclos did not reveal herself as the author for forty years after the initial publication and says she wrote the novel as a series of love letters to her lover Jean Paulhan. Paulhan was an admirer of the work of the Marquis de Sade and we note that Story of O is similar to the obsesions of the Marquis’s works: love, dominance and submission.

Story of O (French: Histoire d’O) is an erotic novel published in 1954 by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage. Desclos did not reveal herself as the author for forty years after the initial publication and says she wrote the novel as a series of love letters to her lover Jean Paulhan. Paulhan was an admirer of the work of the Marquis de Sade and we note that Story of O is similar to the obsesions of the Marquis’s works: love, dominance and submission.

Story of O (French: Histoire d’O) is an erotic novel published in 1954 by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage. Desclos did not reveal herself as the author for forty years after the initial publication and says she wrote the novel as a series of love letters to her lover Jean Paulhan. Paulhan was an admirer of the work of the Marquis de Sade and we note that Story of O is similar to the obsesions of the Marquis’s works: love, dominance and submission.

— § —

WEGENER’S SUITE OF POCHOIR PLATES

The first edition with Perceau’s erotic sonnets. Duflou had first started issuing Wegener’s designs on their own from 1917 but these met with little demand until he repackaged them with his friend Perceau’s sonnets. Gerda Wegener had moved to Paris from Denmark in 1912 with her husband Einar to a life of luxuriant bohemianism. Einar, in female guise as Lily Elbe, was Gerda’s favourite model, especially for her mainstream fashion illustrations. Einar Wegener later became the first man to undergo a gender reassignment operation. Dutel 1356; Pia Enfer, 389.

The first edition with Perceau’s erotic sonnets. Duflou had first started issuing Wegener’s designs on their own from 1917 but these met with little demand until he repackaged them with his friend Perceau’s sonnets. Gerda Wegener had moved to Paris from Denmark in 1912 with her husband Einar to a life of luxuriant bohemianism. Einar, in female guise as Lily Elbe, was Gerda’s favourite model, especially for her mainstream fashion illustrations. Einar Wegener later became the first man to undergo a gender reassignment operation. Dutel 1356; Pia Enfer, 389.

The first edition with Perceau’s erotic sonnets. Duflou had first started issuing Wegener’s designs on their own from 1917 but these met with little demand until he repackaged them with his friend Perceau’s sonnets. Gerda Wegener had moved to Paris from Denmark in 1912 with her husband Einar to a life of luxuriant bohemianism. Einar, in female guise as Lily Elbe, was Gerda’s favourite model, especially for her mainstream fashion illustrations. Einar Wegener later became the first man to undergo a gender reassignment operation. Dutel 1356; Pia Enfer, 389.

The first edition with Perceau’s erotic sonnets. Duflou had first started issuing Wegener’s designs on their own from 1917 but these met with little demand until he repackaged them with his friend Perceau’s sonnets. Gerda Wegener had moved to Paris from Denmark in 1912 with her husband Einar to a life of luxuriant bohemianism. Einar, in female guise as Lily Elbe, was Gerda’s favourite model, especially for her mainstream fashion illustrations. Einar Wegener later became the first man to undergo a gender reassignment operation. Dutel 1356; Pia Enfer, 389.

The first edition with Perceau’s erotic sonnets. Duflou had first started issuing Wegener’s designs on their own from 1917 but these met with little demand until he repackaged them with his friend Perceau’s sonnets. Gerda Wegener had moved to Paris from Denmark in 1912 with her husband Einar to a life of luxuriant bohemianism. Einar, in female guise as Lily Elbe, was Gerda’s favourite model, especially for her mainstream fashion illustrations. Einar Wegener later became the first man to undergo a gender reassignment operation.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Quarto (255 x 195 mm). 12 engraved plates by Wegener coloured by pochoir, all on Arches paper. (Some plates with marginal spotting, some marginal soiling, half-title and index leaf browned.) Original white cloth-backed printed boards, upper side with title printed within a decorative frame, lined with blue paper printed with a pattern in black and gold (lacking ties, extremities rubbed, some soiling).

— § —

‘O’ & Eroticism

FIRST EDITION OF BATAILLE’S SURREALIST MASTERPIECE, BOUND WITH ORIGINAL DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS BY ROJAN. This ‘sumptuous book’ (Dutel) is only the second title in Bonnel and Pia’s planned series of clandestine publications, which was swiftly shut down by the police. Number 24 of 134 copies only.

A philosopher, essayist, novelist, pornographer and fervent Catholic who came to regard the brothels of Paris as his true ‘churches’, Georges Bataille ranks among the boldest and most disturbing of twentieth-century thinkers. In this influential study he links the underlying sexual basis of religion to death, offering a dazzling array of insights into incest, prostitution, marriage, murder, sadism, sacrifice and violence, as well as including comments on Freud, Sade and Saint Theresa. Everywhere, Eroticism argues, sex is surrounded by taboos, which we must continually transgress in order to overcome the sense of isolation that faces us all.

First edition of Bataille’s surrealist masterpiece, bound with original drawings and watercolours by Rojan. ^[4]  This ‘sumptuous book’ (Dutel) is only the second title in Bonnel and Pia’s planned series of clandestine publications, which was swiftly shut down by the police.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Octavo (240 x 192 mm). Lithographed title by Masson; all other Masson plates replaced with ten original drawings and two watercolours by Rojan. (Occasional light marginal soiling.) Contemporary blue half morocco with the original green paper wrappers printed in black bound in, matching slipcase. (b) Number 24 of 134 copies only. Dutel 1698; Pia Enfer, 582. ^[5]  — ROJAN [also ROJANKOVKSY, Feodor (1891-1970)] — [BATAILLE, Georges (1897-1962), writing as:] LORD AUCH. Histoire de l’oeil. Paris: [René Bonnel and Pascal Pia,] 1928.

In these three works of erotic prose Georges Bataille fuses sex and spirituality in a highly personal and philosophical vision of the self. My Mother is a frank and intense depiction of a young man’s sexual initiation and corruption by his mother, where the profane becomes sacred, and intense experience is shown as the only way to transcend the boundaries of society and morality. Madame Edwarda is the story of a prostitute who calls herself God, and The Dead Man, published in 1964 after Bataille’s death, is a startling short tale of cruelty and desire. This volume also contains Bataille’s own introductions to his texts as well as essays by Yukio Mishima and Ken Hollings.

‘Literature is not innocent,’ stated Georges Bataille in this extraordinary 1957 collection of essays, arguing that only by acknowledging its complicity with the knowledge of evil can literature communicate fully and intensely. These literary profiles of eight authors and their work, including Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal and the writings of Sade, Kafka and Sartre, explore subjects such as violence, eroticism, childhood, myth and transgression, in a work of rich allusion and powerful argument.

Set against the backdrop of Europe’s slide into Fascism, Blue of Noon is a blackly compelling account of depravity and violence. As its narrator lurches despairingly from city to city in a surreal sexual and mental nightmare of squalor, sadism and drunken encounters, his internal collapse mirrors the fighting and marching on the streets outside. Exploring the dark forces beneath the surface of civilization, this is a novel torn between identifying with history’s victims and being seduced by the monstrous glamour of its terrible victors, and is one of the twentieth century’s great nihilist works.

A masterpiece of transgressive, surrealist erotica, George Bataille’s Story of the Eye was the Fifty Shades of Grey of its era. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is translated by Joachim Neugroschal, and published with essays by Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes. Bataille’s first novel, published under the pseudonym ‘Lord Auch’, is still his most notorious work. In this explicit pornographic fantasy, the young male narrator and his lovers Simone and Marcelle embark on a sexual quest involving sadism, torture, orgies, madness and defilement, culminating in a final act of transgression. Shocking and sacrilegious, Story of the Eye is the fullest expression of Bataille’s obsession with the closeness of sex, violence and death. Yet it is also hallucinogenic in its power, and is one of the erotic classics of the twentieth century.

— § —

watercolours for Histoire d’O

A series of original watercolours for Histoire d’O, ca.1980.

A series of original watercolours for Histoire d’O, ca.1980.

A series of original watercolours for Histoire d’O, ca.1980.

^  Title page and two of 21 pen-and-ink and watercolour drawings on strong wove paper, most with a page reference pencilled on the verso, and 8 original drawings on tracing paper showing variant designs for a title page, some with colouring instructions, and three pairs of prints, one from each pair with trial hand-colouring. Together in a manila envelope stamped ‘Héliographie Blanc-Wittwer, Genève’ (some corners very lightly bumped).

— § —

Amours, galanteries, intrigues

Amours, galanteries, intrigues

Amours, galanteries, intrigues

An attractively illustrated and extensive, First Edition, compilation of debauchery and biblical encounters in the religious orders. AE and ABPC record no copy at auction; WorldCat locates just one complete copy, in the British Library; the defective copy in the Bibliothèque nationale de France lacks one volume and four plates. ^[6]

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Four volumes in two, duodecimo (150 x 101 mm). 20 tinted lithographs, hand-coloured and finished with gum arabic. (Occasional minor soiling.) Contemporary red half morocco, one printed wrapper preserved, covers ruled in gilt, spines in compartments with raised bands, gilt ruled and centred with fleurons in gilt, gilt edges, marbled endpapers (extremities lightly rubbed). (b) Amours, galanteries, intrigues, Ruses et crimes des Capucins et des religieuses, depuis les temps les plus reculés. Amsterdam and Paris [but Brussels]: [A. Christiaens,] 1788 [but. c.1866-1869].
–
£ — sold for 1,875 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,500—1875,500]

— § —

La Nouvelle Justine

^ A very rare true first edition of the definitive version of Sade’s masterpiece, and one of the rarest landmarks of literature: perhaps less than five copies are known complete in ten volumes. In this greatly expanded version Sade makes the dramatic change to third person narrative: unburdened from the chaste voice of Justine, Sade gives his narrator the full measure of his considerable erotic imagination and vocabulary. Sade returned to Justine galvanized by the horrors of the Terror; once again incarcerated, Sade could see from his prison the guillotine taking its grim toll on the many perceived enemies of the revolution: Sade records that 1800 were buried in the nearby garden in the space of a month. La Nouvelle Justine, in ten volumes richly illustrated with engraved plates throughout, was the most ambitious clandestine erotic publication to date. Its publication led to Sade’s arrest and incarceration for life, without trial, in the Charenton Asylum. The complex publication history of this work was fully elucidated by Ract-Madoux: this true first edition includes the leaf of nota bene in volume 1, and has title-pages with consecutive volume numbers throughout. The first four volumes were printed in 1799, with the majority of the stock seized and destroyed by the police in August 1800. In February 1801 the six volumes of Juliette were offered for sale and sold out quickly. As a result, complete sets of the true first edition of Sade’s most influential and notorious work are very rare. And, because of this gap, sets in a uniform strictly contemporary binding are an impossibility.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) 10 volumes, duodecimo (132 x 80 mm). Half-title in vols 1 and 6-10, and with the leaf of nota bene in volume 1. Complete with 101 engraved plates, including the frontispiece in volume 1, all attributed to Bornet. (Half-title of vol. 5 strengthened in the inside margin, damp-staining in vol.9 affecting some plates, some light browning, occasional scattered spotting, occasional light wear.) Contemporary calf [vols. 1-4], flat spines gilt in compartments with a morocco label titled and numbered in gilt, edges gilt, pink endpapers; and contemporary half calf [vols. 5-10], flat spines with blue title label gilt and black numbering label gilt, the other compartments centred with a small star tool in gilt, blue-green marbled paper sides, sprinkled edges (vols 1-4: front joint of vol. 1 splitting, small losses to spine caps; vols 5-10: endpapers renewed, front joint of vol. 5 splitting, some wear to the label, some spines with expert repairs). Provenance: Roger Peyerfitte (label laid into volume 1). (b) [SADE, Donatien Alphonse François, marquis de (1740-1814).] La Nouvelle Justine, ou les malheurs de la vertu, suivie de l’histoire de Juliette, sa soeur. En Hollande: [but Paris: Bertrandet,] 1797 [1799, 1801]. (c) Dutel A-601, 602; Eros invaincu 50-51; Ract-Madoux, ‘L’èdition originale de la Nouvelle Justine et Juliette’ in Bulletin du Bibliophile, pp. 139-158.
–
£ — sold for 86,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 70,000—100,000]

— § —

ROWLANDSON’S RARE EROTIC SUITE

Horse-play

Bedroom-banter

First collected edition, hand-coloured and in the original sheets, of Rowlandson’s rare erotic suite, printed by Hotten from the original plates. The edition is limited to 100 copies, only a few of which were hand-coloured. Rowlandson circulated his erotic engravings around 1800, individually and on demand, only among a small circle of friends and collectors.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Quarto (230 x 176 mm). 10 hand-coloured engraved plates after Rowlandson, each with caption in verse. (One plate lightly spotted, occasional light wear to deckle edges, text with short tears at the fold of some sheets and occasional light browning, the last leaf browned.) Near contemporary red quarter morocco portfolio over marbled boards, yellow coated endpapers (extremities rubbed); 20th-century brown morocco backed slipcase and chemise. Provenance: J.B. Rund (bookplate, pencilled notes on endpaper). Ashbee Centuria, pp. 346-354; Gay-Lemonnyer III, 845; Kearney 1607. ROWLANDSON, Thomas (1756-1827). Pretty Little Games for Young Ladies and Gentlemen. With pictures of good old English sports and pastimes. [London: J.C. Hotten,] 1845 [but c. 1872].
–
£ — sold for 5,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 4,000—6,000]

— § —

Item from the GALITZIN COLLECTION

Make merry

eye spy

collect them all

^ A collection of 19^th c. erotic plates from the Galitzin collection.This is a unique romantic album with an exceptionally fine and rare provenance: one of only three known books from the legendary Galitzin collection. Duprilot in his study of Galitzin writes: ‘except for Serrefesse, and the album of Exercises gymnastiques… books described by Lehec [from Galitzin’s collection] are not to be found in any known erotic collection, public or private’. This fine album then passed into the equally famous collection of Alfred Bégis which, after being seized by the French state, formed the core of the ‘Enfer’ of the Bibliothèque nationale. Bégis’s biblio-martyrdom is well documented by Apollinaire in his introduction to the catalogue of the Enfer collection.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) 76 plates from 7 or more works, in one volume, quarto (340 x 260 mm). Mid-19th-century green half calf over marbled-paper covered boards, gilt spine, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Provenance: Prince Galitzin — Alfred Bégis (very small photographic portrait on free endpaper). (b) This album conforms to item 13 in Galitzin’s Supplément iconographique, and comprises: Physiologie des Etudiants de Paris (8 plates); Musée des artistes (5 plates); Romans (6 plates); Revue dramatique (10 plates); Scènes théatrales et acrobates (6 plates); Danseurs (3 plates); and a collection of lithographic calling cards of Parisian prostitutes (38 cards mounted on 8 sheets). Apollinaire Enfer, pp.6-7; Duprilot, L’énigme du catalogue du cabinet secret du Prince G***’ p.107; Galitzin 154.
–
£ — sold for 13,750 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 7,000—10,000]

— § —

A rich ROMANTIC ALBUM

^ An exceptionally rich romantic album – one of the most extensive and finest single compilations of erotic plates. Comprising the following suites, many, unusually, preserving the original front wrapper: Soirées lubriques: front wrapper and 12 plates; Nouvel album érotique: part of front wrapper and 11 plates; Charges et décharges diaboliques: front wrapper and 12 plates; Galerie morale et pittoresque: front wrapper and 10 plates; Aux armes de Cythère. Pinnenville: part of front wrapper and 11 plates; Le Conducteur Parisien: front wrapper and 12 plates; Douze vignettes pour Faublas: part of front wrapper and 12 plates; Charge en douze temps: front wrapper and 12 plates; Histoire d’un C. écrite par son plus beau membre: front wrapper and 5 plates; Le juste milieu fait plaisir a tout le monde: front wrapper and 12 plates; Chapitre des Cordeliers: front wrapper and 6 plates; and 148 plates, 11 of these hand-coloured, from c. 24 other works.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
263 plates from 35 or more works in one volume, oblong folio (220 x 275 mm), mainly lithographs, by Devéria, Adam and others, various sizes, mounted on variously coloured papers. (Occasional spotting, occasional short tears.) Late 19th-century burgundy morocco, preserving some original printed front wrappers, spine and sides richly gilt with an all-over, wide scrolling border, the spine titled ‘Album’ in gilt, the front cover centred with the motto ‘Honni soit qui mal y pense’ in gilt, blue moiré style endpapers (front cover detached, rear free endpaper strengthened with tape, extremities lightly rubbed, lower cover lightly scuffed).
–
£ — sold for 18,750 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 15,000—20,000]

— § —

DRAWINGS BY ROJAN

^ A unique copy illuminated throughout with fine original drawings by Rojan, one of the great 20th-century erotic artists. Only 250 copies were printed, this one with a limitation stating that the example is unique and, referring to the nature of the scenes, illustrated with drawings that are ‘indisputably original’. “It is without doubt the best example of this work likely ever to surface:” the Nordmann copy included just one original Rojan drawing.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Quarto (278 x 190 mm). 32 original pen-and-ink and watercolour drawings by Rojan. Contemporary red half morocco with the original pink wrappers printed in red and black bound-in, top edge gilt (edges lightly rubbed). (b) ROJAN [also ROJANKOVKSY, Feodor (1891-1970)] — RADIGUET, Raymond (1903-1923). Vers Libres. Nogent [Paris]: Au Panier Fleuri [ca. 1937]. (c) Dutel 2593; Pia Enfer, 1499.
–
£ — sold for 20,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 4,000—6,000]

— § —

SHUNGA

^ Erotica as war propaganda. This highly unusual item probably dates from the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895 or the later 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. Although the Meiji government had repressed the production of shunga with the introduction of western morality and standards, such erotic material was unofficially supplied to men at the front, thus continuing the traditional ‘apotropaic function of “contest pictures”, or “victory pictures” … and provided stimulating images for sexual relief’ (Buckland in BM Shunga pp.459-460). Ironically, the Meiji administration’s desire to westernize and industrialize provided a new erotic fantasy in the guise of the nurse. The present work includes an illustration of a Japanese nurse in a western-style uniform having intercourse with a soldier in a western-style interior. Other westerners appear, including in two entirely non-Japanese scenes: a westerner in military uniform interacting with a western woman identified by her red hair and western clothes; and an unsettling scene of a Cossack molesting a Chinese woman, the former depicted in traditional shunga-style with enlarged genitalia, and the latter with bound feet. This set-piece of erotica works well as propaganda: the virile attacker (Russia) is forcibly rejected by the weak woman (China), and his bayonet lies uselessly on the floor. Presumably the Japanese soldier need not fear either, and thus this piece is also a ‘victory picture’ (kachi-e), like the traditional shunga carried by samurai to ward off evil and carry himself to victory.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
SHUNGA — Meiji period hand-coloured woodblock erotic scenes. Japan, c.1894-1905. Oblong octavo (189 x 290mm). 13 woodblock illustrations, mounted, all finished with contemporary hand-colouring. (Light soiling mainly confined to mounts.) Original decorative card wrappers, title-slip to upper cover with erased calligraphic title (disbound).
–
£ — sold for 1,750 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,500—2,000]

— § —

Justine

^ The only known copy with the illustrations, these apparently not reproduced anywhere else. Justine caused widespread outrage upon publication and was actively suppressed, with police seizing and destroying what could be found; as a result all early editions are rare. Presented by the publisher as the third edition, and recorded in Dutel’s bibliography as the seventh, it is an apparently unique copy, complete with all the plates, of the most celebrated of all European erotic texts.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) 4 volumes in two, duodecimo (131 x 80 mm). With the half-titles, with leaf L6 in volume 3: a sheet of printed spine labels for each volume. 12 engraved plates including the frontispieces. (Occasional light spotting, volume 3 frontispiece and title neatly repaired in the inside margin.) Contemporary half calf, flat spines with blue title label gilt and black numbering label gilt, the other compartments centred with a small star tool in gilt, blue-green marbled paper sides, sprinkled edges (endpapers renewed, spines expertly repaired, corners rubbed). (b) [SADE, Donatien Alphonse François, marquis de (1740-1814).] Justine, ou les Malheurs de la Vertu. Troisième Édition. En Hollande [but Paris]: 1800. (c) AE and ABPC record only one copy auction, the Leonhardt copy, which lacked eight plates; WorldCat lists just one copy, with no plates, at the Bavarian State Library; another is at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, also without these rare engravings. Apollinaire 505-508; Dutel A-599 (this copy); Gay-Lemonnyer II, 752; Pia Enfer 725.
–
£ — sold for 13,750 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 4,000—6,000]

— § —

Justine ou les Malheurs

^ First edition of Sade’s most influential and notorious work. An exceptional example of this great rarity: a fresh, well-margined copy uncut with the original deckle edges. Justine is a greatly expanded and reworked version of a novella he had composed while imprisoned in the Bastille. It caused widespread outrage upon publication. Charles de Villers, a scandalised critic, consigned three copies to the fire, exhorting others to follow his example, and describing Justine as ‘one of the strongest arguments against the unlimited freedom of the press’ (quoted in Eros invaincu). With such a recommendation readers could not resist finding out for themselves, and Justine went through no fewer than six editions in the ten years before Napoleon ordered the arrest of Justine’s anonymous author. Napoleon, in his Mémorial de Saint Hélène described Justine as ‘the most abominable book yet engendered by the most depraved of imaginations’. But Maurice Lever, the great historian of Enlightenment literature, observed that Justine derives its power not from its superficial obscenity but from its uncompromising philosophical core: ‘Justine scandalises, certainly, but above all it frightens. Its publication provoked a panic. Very quickly it was felt that Morality was not the only thing at stake, that the subversion reached far beyond obscenity, that the real danger lurked elsewhere. This is why contemporaries refused Justine the basic tolerance normally accorded to licentious publications. Justine was rejected wholesale, without appeal; it had to be annihilated; one had to flee from it as if from a barbarian invasion: it was a survival instinct’. The Rund-Nordmann copy included a one-leaf publisher’s preface not found in any other copy, and evidently not integral to the edition.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) 2 volumes in one, octavo (216 x 135 mm). Complete with the half-title in volume 2. Engraved frontispiece by Carrée after Chéry. (Occasional very minor spotting in some margins.) Full burgundy morocco by Fouillet, signed, flat spine ruled and lettered in gilt, sides with gilt triple fillet border with small floral ornaments in the corners, gilt turn-ins (sides with light wear); later black morocco slipcase by Laurenchet. Provenance: one word annotation, in an early hand, in the bottom margin of volume 2, page 50. (b) Dutel A-593; Eros invaincu 50; Gay-Lemonnyer II, 752; Lever Sade, pp.423-230; Pia Enfer 724. (c) [SADE, Donatien Alphonse François, marquis de (1740-1814).] Justine ou les Malheurs de la Vertu. En Hollande: Chez les Libraires Associés [but Paris: J.V. Girouard], 1791.
–
£ — sold for 47,750 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 40,000—60,000]

— § —

Sexualni nocturno

^ First edition, signed by both Nezval and Štyrský, and in the original wrappers. ^[7]  The first Edice 69 publication, with fine surrealist collages by Štyrský. Number 114 of 138 copies only, usually found unsigned. Rare: AE records only two copies having sold at auction.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Octavo (200 x 125mm). 10 full-page illustrations after collages by Jindřich Štyrský. Original pink textured paper wrappers, blue paper label printed in black on the upper side (spine lightly and evenly faded, light soiling). Nezval and Štyrský’s signature on the front blank. (b) Jindřich Štyrský (1899-1942) — NEZVAL, Vitezslav (1900-1958). Sexualni nocturno. Prague: Edice 69, 1931.
–
£ — sold for 4,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,500—2,000]

— § —

La fille Élisa

^ First edition. A unique copy illuminated with original drawings by Henri de Sta, a pioneer of francophone bande dessinée and a very apt choice for this parody of Goncourt and Zola.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Octavo (185 x 120 mm). Printed on laid paper. Two engraved plates sometimes attributed to Rops, extra-illustrated with 8 original pen-and-ink and watercolour drawings in the margins. Uncut in contemporary olive green crushed half morocco, original wrappers printed in black and red bound-in, flat spine tooled up the spine with roses in gilt and red and a satyr in gilt, morocco label titled in gilt, top edge gilt (spine and edges lightly faded). (b) STA, Henri de (1846-1920) — [LEMERCIER DE NEUVILLE, Louis (1830-1918).] La fille Élisa. Scène d’atelier en un acte. Rome [but Amsterdam] : Temple de Vénus [by Hugonis for Augustin Brancart], n.d. [ca. 1884.]
–
£ — sold for 3,500 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,500—2,000]

— § —

Entrée interdite au public

^ A unique copy extra-illustrated with two photographs of Vertes at work, and two original drawings and two lithographs by Vertes. Photographs of Vertès, one of the masters of erotic art, are distinctly uncommon. One shows him instructing a model, and the other shows Vertès drawing her; together with a typescript corrected in manuscript titled ‘Je suis modèle…’ perhaps an account by the model in the photographs. The plates in this work are drawn primarily from L’Heure Exquise and from Le Pays à mon Goût; the introductory text is by Pierre Mac Orlan. One of 250 copies, this one number 15. Dutel 1487.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Folio (320 x 230 mm). 20 photogravures in various tints after Vertès, tipped into paper window mounts as issued; extra-illustrated with 2 original pencil drawings (130-160 x 90-130 mm), and two lithographs (160-180 x 130-150 mm), all window-mounted in paper mats, and two gelatin silver prints of Vertès (240 x 175 mm), copyright stamp of Georges Lorant on the verso (some wear), and a 3 page carbon typescript with manuscript corrections titled ‘Je suis modèle’ also with Lorant’s copyright stamp. Original pink card chemise and slipcase, title label printed in green on the front of the chemise (light wear to spine and joints of the chemise, slipcase lightly faded and lightly soiled). VERTES, Marcel (1895-1961) – Entrée interdite au public. [Paris: Paul Cotinaud, c.1926.]
–
£ — sold for 1,875 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 800—1,200]

— § —

ONE OF VERLAINE’S MAJOR EROTIC WORKS

^ A First edition. A unique copy of one of verlaine’s major erotic works, with original watercolours throughout by Sta, and in a fine binding by Miller. which takes its cue from the stockinged legs of the courtesans in Sta’s excellent drawings. Henri de Sta (1846-1920), caricaturist and humourist, is one of the pioneers of francophone bande dessinée. Verlaine’s poetry in Femmes ‘equally well-tempered as it can be prey to linguistic triviality, always bears witness to desire and suffering. It therefore deserves its place in the oeuvre of the Damned Poet – a place which it was refused until the canonical edition of his works published in 1989 by Pléiade’ (Eros invaincu).

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) One of 150 copies from an edition of 175 only, this one number 45. Dutel 291; Eros invaincu 86; Pia Enfer, 500. For Sta see also lots 194 & 195. (b) Octavo (217 x 135 mm). Extra-illustrated with 20 original watercolours by Henri de Sta. (Deckle edges lightly yellowed, occasional light marginal soiling.) 20th-century decorative morocco by George Miller, signed, with an all-over design of applied leather, suede and other materials, showing a woman’s legs spread out over both covers, the vagina centred on the spine, with the original wrappers laid down and bound in; in a burgundy morocco-backed clamshell case. (c) VERLAINE, Paul (1844-1896). Femmes. [Bruxelles: Kistemaeckers,] 1890.
–
£ — sold for 10,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 2,500—3,500]

— § —

Oeuvres libres

^ Extra-illustrated with original watercolours and engravings by Van Maele. This unique copy provides valuable new information on the publication date of this edition of Verlaine’s major erotic works. Van Maele’s watercolours appear on leaves integral to the text; the edition must therefore predate his death in 1926; previous scholarship dated this edition ca. 1930. The prints bound-in to accompany his drawings are from Van Maele’s very rare series Trilogie érotique (1907).

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Octavo (220 x 140 mm). Printed historiated initials and tail-pieces throughout. Extra-illustrated with three watercolours in the text, and eleven engravings all by Van Maele, one of the latter on paper watermarked ‘MBM’, most others on Arches paper some watermarked ‘Perrigot’. (Edges lightly yellowed.) Contemporary red half morocco by Blanchetière, original drab card covers printed in black bound-in, top edge gilt (wrappers lightly soiled). Provenance: neat title inscription in purple ink. (b) VAN MAELE, Martin (1863-1926) — VERLAINE, Paul (1844-1896). Oeuvres libres. Segovia [Paris]: Pablo de Herlagnez, 1868 [but before 1926].
–
£ — sold for 8,125 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 3,000—5,000]

— § —

Sens devant derrière

^ First edition, a unique copy illuminated by Van Maele with twelve magnificent watercolours: some of these, including the shepherdess tending to her flock of penises, are among the best original work of this very imaginative artist. Martin Van Maele illustrated classics of literature, including Les Fleurs du Mal, but it is in his erotic work that Van Maele gives the full measure of his talent. He is a sharp observer of social mores, and his erotic scenes have a subversive, often surreal, character comparable to Goya. Finished illustrations by Van Maele are very uncommon: they are conspicuously absent from the Nordmann collection, which included only preparatory pen-and-ink drawings. Number 12 of 16 large paper copies printed on Holland, from an edition of 70 copies only.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Duodecimo (195 x c.150 mm). EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED in the margins with 12 watercolours by Martin van Maële. Near contemporary blue half morocco, spine with raise bands, marbled endpapers. Provenance: neat inscription on a front blank and on the title in purple ink. (b) VAN MAELE — [LIGNE, Charles Joseph, Prince de (1735-1814).] Sens devant derrière. N.p. [Paris]: Beloeil [i.e. Poulet-Malassis], n.d. [but 1867]. (c) This edition is very rare: WorldCat locates just one example, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (no illustrations); AE and ABPC record none at auction. Not in Dutel.
–
£ — sold for 20,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 6,000—9,000]

— § —

Année Galante

^ First edition, finely hand-coloured, of this wonderful calendar of erotic tales and songs, each month of the year with an explicit vignette with a verse caption. A reprint was published in Brussels in 1876 which is sometimes confused with this rare first edition.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Duodecimo (195 x c.150 mm). Octavo (257 x 171 mm). Engraved throughout. 41 leaves, including the illustrated title and 12 vignettes all hand-coloured. (Title with short repaired tear in the margin, some leaves with light marginal spotting or faint damp staining.) Full red morocco by Lavaux, with his stamp, spine tooled and titled in gilt, gilt turn-ins, slipcase. (b) Année Galante, ou Etrenne à l’Amour. Contes! Enrichis de Figures et d’Ariettes. WorldCat locates four copies only.
–
£ — sold for 3,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 2,000—3,000]

— § —

Young Misses’ Manual

^ A very rare Victorian clandestine publication, illustrated with hand-coloured lithographs. WorldCat records no copy in any public institution; not in the British Library.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Octavo (156 x 100 mm). 7 (of 8) hand-coloured lithographs mounted on card and bound-in. (Title lightly soiled.) Near contemporary red half roan, edges yellow (extremities rubbed). (b) The Bed-Fellows; or, Young Misses’ Manual. In Six Confidential Dialogues. [London:] Mons Veneris [William Dugdale, c.1860]. (c) AE and ABPC record no copy having sold at auction. cf. Mendes 53-A.
–
£ — sold for 2,375 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,000—1,500]

— § —

hand-coloured etchings by Bécat

All Together

Two’s company

^ First edition, with eight splendid, finely hand-coloured etchings by Bécat. ^[8]  One of 99 copies only, this one number 72. Extra-illustrated with four monochrome prints from the same series, each signed ‘Paul Emile’ in pencil in the margin.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) [BECAT, Paul-Émile (1885-1960).] (b) 8 Images avec leur texte. Paris: [For the artist] 1932. Folio (283 x 229 mm). Text engraved throughout. Eight hand-coloured etchings by Paul-Émile Bécat. (Some margins lightly yellowed and with occasional light spotting or light soiling.) In sheets as issued in the original wrappers, front cover with an etched title and vignette, colophon printed on the inside front cover (edges with light wear and yellowed, short tears at the folds). Dutel 1722. )c) RARE: not in WorldCat; AE lists only one complete copy: the Nordmann copy, and Artnet adds only one more: the Leonhardt copy.
–
£ — sold for 2,500 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,200—1,800]

— § —

LORD AUCH. Histoire de l’oeil

^ First Bellmer edition, and the first work illustrated with Bellmer prints, in a fine binding by Leroux. One of 20 copies with two duplicate sets of the prints, one of these in colour. Bellmer’s remarkable, psychologically charged illustrations are wholly different and more closely aligned with Bataille’s singular text than those produced by Mason for the first edition. The text of the present edition, revised and corrected by Alain Gheerbrant, forms the basis of most subsequent editions. Number XXIV of XXVI from an edition of 199 copies only.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Octavo (250 x 155 mm). 18 engraved plates, including a duplicate set and another duplicate set in colour. Full pink calf by Leroux, signed, the sides with an elaborate design in various materials incorporating a cross centred with an eye in a stylised breast, endpapers lined with black leather and black suede, the original wrappers bound-in, chemise and slipcase (resin on the sides with light surface discolouration). (b) BELLMER — [BATAILLE, Georges (1897-1962), writing as:] LORD AUCH. Histoire de l’oeil. Seville: 1940 [but Paris: K, 1947].
–
£ — sold for 15,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 4,000—6,000]

— § —

‘LISA LYON’

n.b., this is from Sotheby’s (as will be a few of the other lots highlighted hereon in. … Across the centuries, art has always been intrinsically linked to expressions of passion and sensuality. ‘Erotic: Passion & Desire’ will encompass representations of love and sex from antiquity to the present day, exploring themes from the beauty of desire to representations of the nude, to the carnal act itself, stripped of metaphor. Featuring over 100 extraordinary works comprising 19th-century furniture, design, fine art, books, prints, photography and contemporary sculpture, the exhibition opened at Sotheby’s New Bond Street Galleries on 19 March, 2016 ahead of the auction on the evening of the same date. A witness to the events said that bidders were left hot under the collar as the sale of erotica brought a total of £5,297,000, exceeding the combined pre-sale estimate of £3.1–4.6 million.

— § —

JUPITER DISGUISED AS DIANA SEDUCING THE NYMPH CALLISTO

^ This elegant scene of seduction is inspired by an episode recounted by the poet Ovid in Metamorphoses. It shows the bare-breasted nymph Callisto – Diana’s favourite – embraced by the god Jupiter in the guise of the goddess herself. In the background looms Jupiter’s tell-tale attribute, the eagle, while the crescent moon crowning ‘Diana’ identifies the imposter. The son of renowned still-life painter Pieter Claesz., Nicolaes Berchem was an important and influential figure of the Dutch Golden Age. Known primarily as a painter of Italianate landscapes and pastoral scenes popular among contemporary collectors, Berchem was also celebrated as an accomplished figure painter, even providing the staffage in works by such artists as Ruisdael and Hobbema. Berchem’s history paintings that treat allegorical and mythological subjects, as in this work, testify to his ambitions in the genre and were probably executed on commission. Ovid’s Metamorphoses, with its vivid descriptions of the lives and loves of the gods, enjoyed considerable popularity. Available in French translation and, from 1671, in Dutch, it was also published in editions with moralising commentaries addressed to Calvinist burghers. The appeal of this episode for its intended audience lies as much in the ambiguity of gender roles as it does in any moralising content about the adulterous adventures of the gods or the easy seduction of maidens. The subject inspired a number of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painters, notably Rubens, and during the following century its erotic possibilities would also be explored by artists such as Boucher and Fragonard in France.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem and studio / DUTCH, 1620–1683 / JUPITER DISGUISED AS DIANA SEDUCING THE NYMPH CALLISTO / oil on canvas: 39 x 58 1/4 inches. (b) PROVENANCE / Anonymous sale, Rome, Bloomsbury Auctions, 25 May 2010, lot 132.

— § —

RITTER UND MÄDCHEN

^ By Richard Müller (1874–1930). Having studied under Max Klinger, Richard Müller was appointed Professor at the Dresden Academy of Art at the age of 26 and became one of the leading figures of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement. … Set in a deserted landscape, the present work depicts the encounter between a full armoured knight and a girl holding a fig’s leaf, while a skeleton in the far left seems to be occupied digging his own grave. The scene is embedded with surreal elements, creating a feeling of an immersive and eerie space out of this world.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Oil on board / 67 by 91cm., 26¼ by 36in. (b) PROVENANCE: Estate of the Artist (stamp on the reverse) (c) EXHIBITED: Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, Die Schöne und das Biest, Richard Müller & Mel Ramos & Wolfgang Joop, 2013–14.

— § —

THE OFFERING

^ “The Offering” by Théodore Jacques Ralli (1852-1909). This work is one of Ralli’s most erotically charged works. Sitting languidly on a throne is a young girl, entirely naked. The incense burning to the left has induced her into a deep sleep, as petals drop to the floor from her open hands. While contemplating this work one cannot disregard the ambiguity of the title and ask oneself what is the offering, whether the flowers, brought to the altar by the young girl, or the girl herself, offering her body to the divinity in a moment of ecstasy. Whatever the meaning, this ambiguity certainly adds a layer of sensuality to this intriguing and beautiful work.Born in Constantinople, Ralli pursued a thoroughly international career. While Paris became his home early on, throughout his life he travelled frequently to Greece and the Middle East, often spending the winter months in Cairo. From the 1870s he trained alongside other foreign painters in the studio of leading pompier painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, whose legendary draughtsmanship and photographic finish provided a model of perfection Ralli emulated with great success. Ethnographic precision and exactitude were Ralli’s guiding principles, yet his compositions are enhanced by a fine sense of narrative and a delight in the exotic. Like Gérôme he returned time and again to scenes from the hammam, whose voyeuristic associations assured strong commercial appeal. As Maria Katsanaki noted, ‘Ralli showed a special preference for the moments of relaxation and enjoyment which followed the ritual of bathing. In these scenes he depicts his models with luminous velvet skin lying about languidly, towelling themselves gracefully or stretching coquettishly’ (‘Images of the Orient in Greek Painting’ in Marina Lambraki-Plaka ed., Four Centuries of Greek Painting, Athens, 1999, p. 95).

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Signed Ralli (lower left) / oil on canvas / 21½ by 18½in. Giannoula Kaplanis, Tobacco Boxes from the V. Korkolopoulos Collection, Athens, 2004, illustrated on the cover Maria Katsanaki, Le Peintre Théodore Ralli (1852-1909) et son oeuvre, Doctoral Thesis, Paris, 2007, vol. I, p. 291, mentioned; vol. II, p. 562, no. 366, catalogued & illustrated; vol. III, fig. 99, illustrated.

— § —

‘SARA KNEELING’

— by Bob Carlos Clarke (1997)
~ auctioned at the sale titled: “PASSION & DESIRE” in London.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Silver print. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 5/25 in pencil on the reverse. With a certificate of authenticity issued by the Estate accompanying the print. Mounted and framed. (b) Image: 210⅓ x 13 inches; sheet: 519¾ x 16 inches.
–
£ — sold for 6,875 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 6,000—8,000]

— § —

IN THE HAMMAM

— by Patrick Hennessy (c. 1969)

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Oil on canvas. / 69 by 57 inches. PROVENANCE: Private collection, Ireland. EXHIBITED: Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Patrick Hennessy de Profundis, 24 March – 24 July 2016.
–
£ — sold for 13,750 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 12,000—18,000]

— § —

‘ASCOT’

— by Gunter Sachs (1932–2011) (1995). Chromogenic print, flush-mounted to perspex. With a gallery label affixed to the back of the frame with information about the work in facsimile. Framed.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Sheet: 66½ x 104½ inches; Frame: 68¼ x 106 inches. (b) PROVENANCE: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg.
–
£ — sold for 50,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 8,000—12,000]

— § —

THE VARIABLE FREQUENCIES OF RESTRAINT

— By Terry Rodgers. Terry Rodgers (born September 11, 1947) is an American artist known for his large scale canvases that mostly depict contemporary body politics. He graduated cum laude from Amherst College in 1969, with a major in Fine Arts. ^[9]

£ — sold for 32,500 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 10,000—15,000]

— § —

Thérèse philosophe

^ Two parts in one volume, duodecimo (110 x 70 mm). Complete with 16 hand-coloured engraved plates including the frontispiece, printed on strong laid paper. (Occasional light marginal soiling, final blank with small loss.) Contemporary red morocco, flat spine gilt in compartments, morocco label titled in gilt, covers with triple-rule border in gilt, edges gilt, marbled endpapers (label chipped at corners, extremities rubbed).

NOTES ON THIS LOT
[BOYER d’ARGENS, Jean-Baptiste (1703-1771), attributed to.] Thérèse philosophe. Glascow [sic]: n.p., 1773.
–
£ — sold for 6,875 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 2,000—3,000]

— § —

Heart’s Desire

^ FIRST EDITION. ONE OF ONLY 70 COPIES. Although purporting, in the well-established manner, to derive from a manuscript accidentally included in a multiple-lot of books purchased in a Parisian auction, the text is in fact the work of Buckland Wright’s close friend and collaborator Christopher Sandford. A rare 18th-century edition with hand-coloured plates, in red morocco. Thérèse Philosophe, one of the earliest pornographic novels in any European language, builds on the notorious Girard-Cadière scandal, a subject reprised by Huxley in his The Devils of Loudun, and the inspiration for Ken Russell’s The Devils. In the notes for his unfinished last novel, The Story of a Great Sinner, Dostoevsky writes that Thérèse is the book which caused his hero to go astray.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Quarto (261 x 194mm). Title and first 2 lines of text printed in purple. Engraved title-vignette and 7 engraved plates by and after John Buckland Wright. Contemporary vellum-backed sky blue buckram, spine lettered in gilt; blue cloth slipcase (negligible spotting on the endpapers, cloth edges lightly darkened, slipcase a little faded on one edge). (b) BUCKLAND WRIGHT, John (1897-1954) — DANSDORF, Chrysilla von [pseudonym of Christopher SANDFORD]. Heart’s Desire. Paris: for private circulation only [London: printed by the Tintern Press, for the text, and A. Alexander & Sons, for the plates, 1939]. (c) WorldCat locates just one copy of this edition, in the National Library of Scotland; not in the British Library, or the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Early bibliographers, confusing this with another edition, call incorrectly for 20 plates; this edition is complete with 15 plates plus the frontispiece. Cohen-DeRicci 734; Dutel A-1083.
–
£ — sold for 2,375 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,500—2,000]

— § —

Fille de Joiee

^ The most beautiful 18th-century illustrated edition of this celebrated erotic novel. An excellent copy bound in contemporary morocco. It is the second translation into French, but the first to include the exquisite plates by Elluin after Borel. These are some of the best illustrations by this remarkable partnership responsible for a number of important 18th-century libertine texts.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) 2 volumes in one, duodecimo (128 x 80 mm). Printed on blue tinted paper. Frontispiece and 14 engraved plates on thick white paper by Elluin after Borel. (Short tear repaired in the margin of one plate, another plate with a faint dampstain touching the facing leaf of text.) Contemporary burgundy morocco, flat spine gilt in compartments, morocco label gilt, covers with a gilt triple fillet border, gilt edges, blue endpapers. (b) [CLELAND, John (1709-1789).] Nouvelle traduction de Woman of Pleasur [sic] ou Fille de Joie. Contenant les Mémoires de Mademoiselle Fanny, écrits par elle-même. London [but Paris]: G. Fenton [Cazin], 1776. (c) Cohen-DeRicci 242-3; Dutel A-407 ; Gay-Lemonnyer II, 304; Pia Enfer, 915.
–
£ — sold for 11,875 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 4,000—6,000]

— § —

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

^ Rare early edition of the most celebrated erotic novel in English, all the plates with contemporary hand-colouring, and in a contemporary binding. The Nordmann copy. Although dated 1791 this edition probably appeared very early in the 19th century, with the plates sometimes attributed to Isaac Cruikshank. Through the course of its long and clandestine printing history – it remained illicit into the 1970s – Fanny Hill was the object of constant government prosecution, with editions systematically suppressed, and often destroyed. As a result any early edition, particularly with hand-coloured plates, is exceptionally rare.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
This copy is apparently the only surviving from this edition: WorldCat gives no locations, and AE and ABPC list no other copy at auction. (b) 2 volumes in 1, duodecimo in sixes (180 x 105 mm). Engraved title and 16 engraved plates including the frontispiece, all hand-coloured; most attributed to Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811), the first three plates in volume 2 evidently the work of another artist. Pagination in volume 1 beginning at 13 but the text complete; without final blank leaf M5 in volume 2, possibly as issued. (Occasional light browning, occasional light soiling, some short marginal tears some of these repaired.) Contemporary English roan, sides with a gilt rule border (expertly rebacked and repaired). Provenance: Brent Gration-Maxfield (signature) – Gérard Nordmann (label; his sale, Christies’ Paris, 14-15 December 2006, lot 136). (c) [CLELAND, John (1709-1789).] Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. London: Printed for G. Fenton in the Strand, 1791.
–
£ — sold for 8,125 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 3,000—5,000]

— § —

‘Collège’

^ A collection of homoerotic watercolours titled ‘Collège’, France, mid-20th century. A fine series of explicit homoerotic watercolours all by the same unidentified but accomplished hand. 12 watercolours on wove paper (290 x 235 mm), each tipped into white card window mounts (345 x 270 mm). Together in a red leather-backed chemise, titled ‘Collège’ in gilt up the spine, with the remnants of a matching slipcase (lacking the edges).

£ — sold for 5,000 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 5,000—8,000]

— § —

Jeunesse

^ First edition of this finely coloured masterpiece by Collot. One of only 60 copies published for private circulation among his friends. WorldCat records no copy in any institution. Small folio (222 x 251 mm). 12 coloured plates. Original tan wrappers, in sheets, front cover printed in pink, original paper-covered card chemise with flaps, illustrated paper label on the front cover (chemise worn at extremities and stained on the lower cover).

£ — sold for 3,500 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 700—1,000]

— § —

La Semaine secrète de Sapho

^ First edition, one of 25 copies with an original drawing by Collot, an additional unpublished plate, and a duplicate suite of plates with additional vignettes in the margins. The finely hand-coloured plates are among the best produced by Collot, a prolific illustrator of erotica. Pia wrote this work in imitation of La Semaine secrète de Vénus. A fine, unopened copy in the original wrappers. Number 23 of 25 copies from an edition of 284 only.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Quarto (253 x 192 mm). Headlines and ornaments printed in blue. 8 hand-coloured plates and, laid-in, a duplicate monochrome suite, an unpublished coloured plate, and an original pencil drawing, all by Collot. Unopened in the original blue wrappers printed in dark blue. (b) COLLOT, André (1897-1976) — [PIA, Pascal (1903-1979).] La Semaine secrète de Sapho. [Paris:] La Chronique des Dames Contemporaines [Marcel Lubineau, c. 1929]. (c) Dutel 2384; Pia Enfer, 1316. For Collot see also lot 124.
–
£ — sold for 875 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 700—900]

— § —

La Bible Noire

^ One of 300 copies (a first edition), this one number 124, but much rarer than the limitation suggests: WorldCat locates no copy in any institution; AE and ABPC record none sold at auction. It is likely that the bulk of the edition was destroyed.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Folio (408 x 304 mm). Printed title with limitation statement, and 10 etchings, some printed in green, each plate signed in pencil. (Title with marginal crease and light soiling, plates lightly yellowed and with light soiling in the margins). Original linen chemise with paper flaps, in sheets, title etching mounted on the front cover, lined with white paper (lining worn at the spine). (b) DELECHAMPS, R.L. (pseudonym). La Bible Noire. Paris [but probably Berlin]: Edition Privat, 1921.
–
£ — sold for 8,125 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,000—1,500]

— § —

Les Soirées lubriques

^ A DEVERIA MASTERPIECE, here present in two states: a wide-margined set complete in twelve plates, and another set of ten plates from the same series, with narrower margins and issued with a lithographed cover titled Les Soirées lubriques. Erotique. This issue also appears complete: the Nordmann collection included this same version, also without ‘La maison en ruë’ and ‘Les Effets du champagne.’

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) 23 hand-coloured lithographs comprising: a) a set of 12 plates (130 x 157 mm), hand-coloured and finished with gum arabic, on white wove paper (270 x 360 mm) (scattered spotting, short tears and light wear to edges, one plate with a long tear in the margin); b) another set with the illustrated front wrapper and 10 plates (130 x 157 mm), hand-coloured and finished with gum arabic, the front wrapper on thin lilac paper and the others on stronger white wove paper (220 x 300 mm) (short tear in the margin of the front cover, scattered spotting mainly in the margins). (b) [DEVÉRIA, Achille (1800-1857).] Two sets of plates for Les Soirées lubriques. [Paris: 1830s-1840s.] (c) Both versions are rare: the only complete sets recorded by AE and ABPC are the Nordmann copies (sold, Christie’s Paris, 27 April 2006, lots 124 and 387).
–
£ — sold for 3,750 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 2,000—3,000]

— § —

Poésies badines & facétieuses

^ An attractive edition with hand-coloured lithographs of the great wit’s racy rhymes. This edition apparently not in the Bibliotheque nationale de France; the British Library copy lacks all the plates. AE and ABPC record only one copy at auction: the Bégis-Nordmann copy (sold, Christie’s Paris, 27 April 2006, lot 322). Dutel A-886.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Duodecimo (158 x 107 mm). Half-title and title printed in red. 40 hand-coloured lithographs. (Light spotting in the bottom margin of some leaves.) Contemporary red calf, spine with raised bands and gilt in compartments, green morocco label titled in gilt, marbled edges (extremities lightly rubbed). (b) PIRON, Alexis (1689-1773). Poésies badines & facétieuses. Cythère [but Brussels]: Cupidon [Vital Puissant], 5000800605 [1865].
–
£ — sold for 2,375 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,200—1,800]

— § —

Oeuvres badines

^ An early edition of Piron, with the plates finely coloured in gouaches. This edition, published the year after the first, not in the Bibliothèque nationale de France; AE and ABPC record no copy at auction. Piron’s salacious verses were enormously popular, with twenty editions issued in the 19th century alone. The work was often prosecuted, and copies seized and destroyed; as a result early editions are notably rare.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
(a) Small octavo (100 x 60 mm). 8 hand-coloured engraved plates. (Half-title perhaps supplied, occasional minor spotting.) 20th-century green leather, burgundy spine label titled in gilt. (b) PIRON, Alexis (1689-1773). Oeuvres badines. Paris: Chez les Marchands de Nouveautés, 1797.
–
£ — sold for 1,690 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,000—1,500]

— § —

Passion de femme

^ First edition. A unique copy illustrated with original drawings. Rare: WorldCat locates no copy of this first edition in any public institution; it locates copies of the second edition of c.1928 with 111 pages at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and at the British Library, the former attributing this novel of female dominance to Louis Perceau.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Auction house particulars: Josiane et son Esclave. Passion de femme. Paris: chez tous les marchands de Nouveautés, n.d. [1911]. Octavo (160 x 125 mm). 136 pages of text. Title and half-title printed in red and black, title within an ornamental border. Extra-illustrated with 5 original pen-and-ink and ink wash drawings. (Margins evenly yellowed, some white pigment in drawings oxidised.) Contemporary limp red leather, front cover title in gilt, marbled endpapers (extremities lightly rubbed). AE and ABPC record no copy at auction. Dutel 421; Pia Enfer, 646.
–
£ — sold for 625 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 600—900]

— § —

Le modèle chez le peintre amateur

^ A rare suite of hand-coloured plates by Fredillo, complete with all the plates. The copy shown in the 1999 exhibition ‘Jardi d’Eros’ in Barcelona lacked four plates. WorldCat locates no copy in any public institution; apparently not in the Bibliothèque nationale de France; AE and ABPC record no copy at auction. Jardi d’Eros, p.270.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Auction house particulars: [FREDILLO.] Le modèle chez le peintre amateur. [France: ca. 1880s.] Folio (200 x 140 mm). 10 hand-coloured plates (170 x 120 mm to the plate mark). (Minor wear in some margins, first plate lightly yellowed in the margin.) Mounted on stubs in contemporary pink cloth-backed marbled boards, spine with morocco label and two ornaments stamped in gilt, top edge gilt, blue marbled endpapers (corners rubbed, light wear to the label). Provenance: remnants of bookplate on the front pastedown.
–
£ — sold for 3,250 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,500—2,000]

— § —

Flossie…

^ A unique copy, extra illustrated with fine original drawings, of one of Carrington’s most popular titles, first published in 1897. AE records only a later German edition at auction.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Auction house particulars: (a) Octavo (182 x 115 mm). Extra illustrated with 5 pen and ink drawings on wove paper. (Paper stock lightly and evenly yellowed.) Contemporary dark brown roan, upper side titled in gilt; later buckram slipcase and chemise (spine lightly faded, corners rubbed, lower board with a split near the top edge). Provenance: J.B. Rund (bookplate). (b) Flossie… By One who knew this Charming Goddess and Worshipped at her shrine. London and New York [but probably Paris]: The Erotica Biblion Society [Charles Carrington], n.d. [but c.1901]. (c) Mendes 102-C.
–
£ — sold for 1,625 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,000—1,500]

— § —

Les Extases de l’amour

^ The Georges Hugnet copy of this very rare work: WorldCat locates no copy in any institution; and AE and ABPC record none at auction. These humorous engravings in a Romantic style were very popular in this period, and inspired or were reproduced in several collections of prints with different titles or without the verse captions.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Auction house particulars: Auction house particulars: (a) Small octavo (135 x 86 mm). 20 engraved plates including the engraved title, each with verse captions, all on strong wove paper. (Text of one leaf just shaved by the binder, occasional minor spotting in some margins.) Early 19th-century pink boards, possibly original, edges yellow (front joint starting); later pink cardboard chemise and slipcase. Provenance: Georges Hugnet (1906-1974, artist and author; bookplate). (b) Les Extases de l’amour. Oeuvre philosophique dédié à l’Univers fouteur. ‘Philadelphy: Upon the place peler,’ n.d. [c. 1828].
–
£ — sold for 3,750 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 1,800—2,500]

— § —

L’Enfer de Joseph Prudhomme

^ A first edition, a unique copy on special paper, richly extra-illustrated, and with two original drawings and two manuscript letters by Edmund Dulac. This copy is printed on Japon Nacré, a paper not specified by the limitation, which lists only 20 copies on Japon Impérial and 300 copies on Vergé paper; this unique state suggests an important provenance. One of the letters is addressed to Valotaire, Dulac’s collaborator on Nous Deux, one of the most beautiful erotic books of its age, suggesting that this unique copy may have belonged to Valotaire. In the other letter, which includes an original sketch, Dulac discusses instructions for the printer including corrections to the plates. The original drawings show variant designs for the plates ‘La Grisette’ and ‘L’étudiant’. The additional material with this copy also includes proofs, with manuscripts corrections, for the two part titles and their plates, an unpublished plate, one proof plate on japan paper, and three duplicate suites of all the plates printed on various papers.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Auction house particulars: (a) Octavo (178 x 116 mm). Eight hand-coloured engraved plates, and three duplicate suites of plates on various papers, for a total of 32 plates, with additional material as listed below. Original printed wrappers, in two cardboard chemises, one for the additional material, together in one cardboard slipcase, the chemises titled in manuscript (slipcase rubbed at the extremities and lightly soiled). (b) Provenance: Marcel Valotaire (autograph letter signed from Dulac laid-in). (c) DULAC — [MONNIER, Henry (1799 – 1877).] L’Enfer de Joseph Prudhomme. Savoir Deux gougnottes et La Grisette et l’étudiant. Paris: sans la permission du Roy Louis Philippe [ca.1929].
–
£ — sold for 3,250 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 2,000—3,500]

— § —

Nelly et Jean

Nelly et Jean. Nous deux. Simples papiers du tiroir secret. (1 of 4)

Nelly et Jean. Nous deux. Simples papiers du tiroir secret. (2 of 4)

Nelly et Jean. Nous deux. Simples papiers du tiroir secret. (3 of 4)

Nelly et Jean. Nous deux. Simples papiers du tiroir secret. (4 of 4)

^ One of only twelve copies of this masterpiece of 20th-century erotic illustration. This deluxe issue on Japan imperial paper includes two unpublished illustrations, two additional suites of plates, and eight proof plates. It is the most desirable state of the most desirable art deco erotic book.

NOTES ON THIS LOT
Auction house particulars: (a) 3 volumes [including one for the additional plates], octavo in half sheets (280 x 190 mm). 46 hand-coloured engraved illustrations in the text, and 106 additional engraved plates, comprising two plates not published in the edition, eight proofs, and two full duplicate suites, one of these in a preliminary state, including the cover illustrations for each volume. Original wrappers with a hand-coloured illustration on the upper side of each volume, in the original printed paper covered cardboard chemises and slipcase (chemises lightly and evenly darkened at the spine and light rubbed at the joints, slipcase darkened and rubbed). (b) Copy number two from an edition of 295 copies only. Dutel 2054; Pia Enfer, 983. (c) DULAC, Jean (1902-1968) — [VALOTAIRE, Marcel.] Nelly et Jean. Nous deux. Simples papiers du tiroir secret. [Argenteuil and Paris: Coulouma and Vernant for the author, 1929.].
–
£ — sold for 5,625 (c. 19/3/2017).
[Auction house’s estimated range GBP: 4,000—6,000]

— § —

Selected bibliography

You know that a refrence list and a bibliography are not one and the same thing right? You know that CMS and APA are two distinctive ways of acheiving one and the same thing right?

01. — 📕 Beautiful “&” Sublime (n.d.)

This is a book of a sort that due to its evolving nature is best described as being of indeterminate in length and nebulous in type. Take one look and we’ll wager you’ll be hooked. But then again, as it’s no more and no less nefarious to its very core (its innermost heart & sanctum sanctorum soul), possibly this kind of gift horse will be seen as but an ass in your esteemed estimation, dear fraternal fellowship of feminine readers (oh Jay! Where are you this day?).
 
 

02. — 📕 The Kama Sutra (c. 369 B.C.E.)

The Kama Sutra (कामसूत्र / Kāmasūtra in its Sanskrit original) is an ancient Indian text on sexuality, eroticism and, the emotional fulfillment in life. It ain’t just (or indeed predominantly) a sex manual on positions. The Kama Sutra is a guide to the art of living happily alongside a treatise on the nature of love. Of interest (to me anyway) is that one of the first to translate this into any European language was Sir Richard Burton—Oh the Devil does Drive, and on its merry rounds, the said driven one (Richard Burton) inter alia slipped into Mecca and tracked in the sands of the lands that were later traversed by the Don of the Desert and the hauntingly daunting and deeply enrapturing Rub’ al Khali (a.k.a., ٱلرُّبْع ٱلْخَالِي‎ a.k.a., the “Empty Quarter”), the venerable Wilfred Thesiger.
 
 

03. — 📕 The Art of Love (2 C.E.)

The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria in its Latin original) was written by the Roman poet Ovid (who’s probably most famous for having written: Metamorphoses, tellingly said: “love is a kind of warfare” and was born in 43 B.C.E. [♟] and died circa 18 C.E. [☠] and whose full name was in fact Publius Ovidius Naso). The Art of Love is an instructional elegy series in three books. It was written in 2 C.E. (or as we may wanna say 2 AD). The first part/book deals with how men can ‘find’ women; the second part is on Ovid’s ways of ‘keeping’ her (once found) and the third—penned two years after the first two were put to the public—gives women advice on how to win and keep the love of a man.
 
 

04. — 📕 The Arabian Nights (10^th c. onward)

The Arabian Nights or, ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ ( أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ‎ / Alf laylah wa-laylah in its Arabic original) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled during the so-called Islamic Golden Age. Of interest (to me anyway) is that one of the first to translate this into any European language was Sir Richard Burton—Oh the Devil does Drive, and on its merry rounds the said driven one slipped into Mecca and tracked in the sands of the lands that were later traversed by the Don of the Desert and the hauntingly daunting and deeply enrapturing Rub’ al Khali (a.k.a., ٱلرُّبْع ٱلْخَالِي‎ a.k.a., the “Empty Quarter”), the venerable Wilfred Thesiger. Déjà vu, anyone? From Hindustan (^ see entry 02, above) we’re now in Arabia (think: Sand City / Date grove) and this high art of CTRL + C and CTRL + V continues in the listing that follows (see entry 05, below) when we traverse the Arabian/Persian Gulf and wend our way to Isfahan and its environs. Many of the tales in The Arabian Nights have erotic undertones, from the stories of wives and their lovers to those of kings and their conquests, to the overarching story of Shahrazad and Shahryar. However, so as not to hide it, Burton did add colour, many say he took the poetic license granted to translators of poetic text a few furlongs too far. Take for one example this note he made to an aspect of one tale’s plot: Debauched Arab women show a particular lust for black men on account of the size of their parts. “I measured one man in Somalia who, when quiescent, numbered nearly six inches … No honest Moslem would take his womenfolk to Zanzibar on account of the huge attractions and enormous temptations there.” (Burton had a habit of measuring ‘quiescent’ male members and was frank enough to say Europeans were only average but those of ‘pure’ Arabs and the menfolk of Hindustan were well below average.)
 
 

05. — 📕 The Perfumed Garden (15^th c.)

Giving it its full title, The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight (الروض العاطر في نزهة الخاطر‎ / Al-rawḍ al-ʿāṭir fī nuzhaẗ al-ḫāṭir in its Arabic original) is a 15^th c. sex manual and work of erotic literature by Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nefzawi. The book gives advice on sexual techniques, recipes to remedy sexual maladies and, among other things, gives lengthy lists of names for the penis and vagina. Yep, our man in the Orient, Sir Richard Burton, was the first to translate this treatise on the birds ‘n’ bees into English too. Oh! The Devil does Drive, and on its merry rounds drove Burton to dip himself into a bath of crushed walnut and Rose water to dye himself in preparation for penetrating Mecca and Medina (not content to undertake this mendacious act as a common man, he adopted an Afghan lilt to his near fluent Arabic and posed as a Sheikh who happened to have acquired near magical Eastern gynecological skills; permitting him not only VIP entry into the confines of Mecca but also the tents of the wives of the dignitaries of some of the fiercest Wahhabi subscribers to Ḥanbalite law that ever did live and breath [upon gaining this rarefied, no wholly ‘exclusive’ realm of the Bedouin tent, he promptly made b-lines to the a-lines beneath the petticoats worn under the puritanical black abaya {worth noting too that Burton, whilst posted to Bombay and tiring of the tedium of stockpiling loot from the subcontinent in the warehouses of Naval Dockyard for the East India, took it entirely upon himself to carry out, first-hand, so-to-speak, a comprehensive and exhaustive anthropological study of Bombay’s red light district ((Lal Bazaar))}]) and track in the sands of the lands that were later traversed by the Don of the Desert and the hauntingly daunting and deeply enrapturing Rub’ al Khali (a.k.a., ٱلرُّبْع ٱلْخَالِي‎ a.k.a., the “Empty Quarter”), the venerable Wilfred Thesiger. From Hindustan (^ see entry 02, above) by way of Dhow sail (داو dāw) to Arabia (^ see entry 04, above), we’re now in Persia (think: of the patter of decorated feet on the cool marble floors of Purdah in cahoots with the hubbub of the market rising from the streets beyond the palace walls) and this high art of CTRL + C and CTRL + V, now concludes. Freud considered the theory of repression to be: “the corner-stone on which the whole structure of psychoanalysis rests…” the extent to which this links in with déjà vu is up to you, I’m just saying don’t go confusing Freud the elder with Freud the younger (i.e., I’m here on about Sigmund not Lucian).
 
 

06. — 📕 The Carnal Prayer Mat (1696)

The Carnal Prayer Mat (Rouputuan in simplified Chinese) has a controversial status in Chinese history and its literary canon. It has long been banned and censored. It was written by Li Yu (who was born in 1610 [♟] and died in 1680 [☠] and was also known as Li Liweng) who was a playwright and a publisher in addition to a writer of prose. Today The Carnal Prayer Mat is considered by some to have used unabashed pornographic tracts to attack Confucian puritanism. Prophetically, the book’s prologue declares that sex is healthy when taken as if it were a drug, but not as if it were ordinary food. As literary critic Danny Yee wrote in 2004, although this text is “pretty raunchy in places” it should be applauded far more for its “brilliant comedy and satire.”
 
 

07. — 📕 Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748)

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748), known too as Fanny Hill (possibly an anglicisation of the Latin mons veneris, mound of Venus), is an erotic work by Englishman John Cleland (born [♟] 1709, died [☠] 1789). It was first published in London in 1748 whilst Cleland was in debtors’ prison. It is considered to be the first original English prose pornography and thus has been one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. Being as from where I’m from I’m compelled, yes compelled in an utterly unstoppable way to write in support or as a retort: camel toe. In sum, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill) details the coming of age and subsequent shenanigans of one Frances Hill who was orphaned at the age of 15. With no money at hand she leaves her villages and travels to London where she gets a cleaning job at Mrs. Brown’s brothel. At first Fanny believes her new job to be legitimate, but her curiosity and sensuality are aroused when the prostitute with whom she shares a room introduces her to sex. Mrs. Brown then tricks Fanny into ‘servicing’ a client. She thereafter leaves Mrs. Brown and falls for a man called Charles but this is a short-lived respite from her engagement with the world’s so-called oldest trade, because he’s sent of to sea never to be seen again (or does he return ;))… Fanny then finds work at an upper-class brothel, where she experiences a multitude of sexual acts and discovers that sex for money is not as satisfying as sex for love…
 
 

08. — 📕 120 Days of Sodom (1785, published: 1904)

120 Days of Sodom (Les 120 Journées de Sodome ou l’école du libertinage in its French original) was Sade’s masterwork; the manuscript was lost for a period during the French Revolution and was not published until the 20th c. Marquis de Sade’s unfinished drafts are nowadays described as being both erotic and pornographic (born [♟] 1740, died [☠] 1814; Donatien Alphonse François [Marquis de Sade] was a French nobleman who was/is famous for his libertine sexuality and writing on sex and infamous for his sexual abuse of adolescents). In sum, the tale of 120 Days of Sodom is about four wealthy male who embark upon a quest to experience the ultimate sexual gratification by conducting a string of orgies. They do this by sealing themselves away for four months in an remote castle deep in the heart of the Black Forest (in today’s Germany; think/don’t think: Black Forest gâteau [Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte]) with a harem of 36 victims.
 
 

09. — 📕 Flowers of Evil (1857)

Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du mal in its French original) is said to be a real masterpiece of French literature (it is a collection of poems that are sometimes of an erotic nature/bent). Upon publication Charles Baudelaire (born [♟] 1821, passed [☠] 1867; was a French essayist, poet [his poems are widely considered to show a mastery of rhyme and rhythm and combine neatly Romantic exoticism with realistic observations of everyday life] and, an early translators of Edgar Allan Poe into French.) was prosecuted by way of an ‘outrage aux bonnes mœurs’ (‘an insult to public decency’) and fined 300 francs. Six of the book’s poems were then suppressed for almost 100 years: “Lesbos,” “Women Doomed (In the pale glimmer…),” “Le Léthé,” “To Her Who Is Too Joyful,” “The Jewels” and, “The Vampire’s Metamorphoses.” Thanks to Alan Turing and Tim Berners-Lee we now have the internet and we have uninhibited, unabridged and unexpurgated access to this sextet, Flowers of Evil in full and indeed, every line of every work in this selected♡bibliography.
 
 

10. — 📕 Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928)

Lady Chatterley’s Lover is one of the more famous novels by D. H. Lawrence (David Herbert Lawrence was born [♟] in September of 1885 and expired [☠] in March of 1930, his collected works, inter alia, can be seen as a reflection on the dehumanising effects of modernity, industrialisation and ‘The Great War’ [WWI] [within this reflection he explores vitality, spontaneity, sexuality and emotional well-being]). It was first published privately in 1928 in Italy and in 1929 in France—its explicit descriptions of sex, and Lawrence’s use of then-unprintable (in the United Kingdom at least) four-letter words rendered it a liber non grata in England. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the U.K. until 1960, when it was the subject of a watershed obscenity trial against the publisher Penguin Books. Penguin won the case and quickly sold three million copies. In sum, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a story of the physical (and emotional) relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman.
 
 

11. — 📕 Story of the Eye (1928)

Story of the Eye (Histoire de l’œil in its French original) is the 1928 novella written by Georges Bataille (whose full name was/is Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille, a gentleman who was born [♟] in 1897 and broke on through to the other side [☠] in July of 1962 and whilst alive was interested in many things including the history of art and wrote on an array of subjects in various forms including: eroticism surrealism and transgression)). In sum, Story of the Eye, details the increasingly bizarre sexual perversions of a pair of teenage lovers. It is narrated by the young man looking back on his exploits. The work contains several vignettes, centered around the sexual passion existing between the unnamed late adolescent male narrator and Simone, his primary female partner. Within this episodic narrative two secondary figures emerge: Marcelle, a mentally ill sixteen-year-old girl who comes to a sad sticky end, and Lord Edmund, a voyeuristic English émigré aristocrat of the debauched (we’d say) debonair (he’d say) kind.
 
 

12. — 📕 Tropic of Cancer (1934)

Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller (Henry Valentine Miller, [♟] December 26, 1891 – [☠] June 7, 1980, was an American writer noted for developing a new type of literary format, a semi-autobiographical one that blended character study, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness, explicit sex scenes and mysticism), has been described as both ‘notorious’ for its realistic descriptions of sex and ‘responsible’ for the free speech that is now considered as a given in literature. Although published in Paris in 1934, it was long banned in the United States. When finally Tropic of Cancer was published in America in 1961 the publisher, Grove Press, was taken to court and it took until 1964 for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide that it wasn’t too obscene to be added to the higher up bookshelves of bookshops.
 
 

13. — 📕 Delta of Venus (1940s, published: 1977)

Delta of Venus, by Anaïs Nin (or, as spelled out in her passport, Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell, was born [♟] in 1903 and passed away [☠] in 1977, she was a French-Cuban American diarist, essayist, nwho was born to Cuban parents in France where she spent her formative years in Paris [La Ville Lumière], beforehand it was Spain and Cuba and after that it was all lived out in the U. S. of A.), is a book of fifteen erotic stories mostly written in the 1940s. It was not made available to the general public until 1977. Nin wrote these stories for a long anonymous individual known as ‘The Collector.’ (The Collector also paid Henry Miller (^ see entry 12, above) and English poet George Granville Barker [1913–1991—who I can reveal to be the person that penned ‘The True Confession of George Barker’] to produce erotic fiction for their private consumption). We today know the identity of this pornographic patron, one Roy M. Johnson of Healdton Oil, Oklahoma, You. S. Ayy (Roy’s now made it on to Oklahoma’s ‘Hall of Fame’ that is maintained diligently by the Gaylord-Pickens Museum [who deftly omit all mention of his interest in erotica, instead focusing on the patronage he bestowed upon church and state]).
 
 

14. — 📕 The Story of O (1954)

The Story of O (Histoire d’O in its French original) is an erotic novel published in 1954 by French author Anne Desclos (Anne ‘Cécile’ Desclos, born [♟] 1907, died [☠] 1998) under the pen name ‘Pauline Réage.’ Desclos was bisexual. She had a long-term relationship with her employer Jean Paulhan, the director of the prestigious Nouvelle Revue Française, who was 23 years her senior and a long-term liaison with historian and novelist Édith Thomas, who may have been an inspiration for the character of Anne-Marie (The Story of O’s protagonist). In sum, The Story of O is the tale of female submission involving a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer named O, who is taught to be constantly available for oral, vaginal, and anal intercourse, offering herself to any male who belongs to the same secret society as her lover. She is regularly stripped, blindfolded, chained, and whipped (and even gets her bum cheeks branded with a hot rod).
 
 

15. — 📕 Lolita (1955)

Lolita was written by a Russian-American novelist who, in his later years, preferred to reside in a serviced Swiss chalet appended to a swish swanky hotel resort and engage in caustic trysts [sic] with literary critics and, is known to us today as, Vladimir Nabokov (born [♟] 1899, died [☠] 1977 and who famously wrote, ‘it was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight’). This work is notable for both its controversial subject matter and the crafting of the English language. The book soon became a literary classic and remains one to this day not least because of its style and its precise portrayal of the banality of postwar America. In sum, in Lolita, we follow the protagonist-cum-narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. Humbert is obsessed with a 12-year-old girl, Dolores Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after using both hook and crook, he becomes her stepfather.

references

Al Nafzawi, M. (1989 [15^th c.]). The Perfumed Garden: First illustrated edition of Sir Richard Burton’s translation. London: Hamlyn/Octopus Publishing Group/Hachette Livre/Lagardère Publishing.

Bataille, G. (2001 [1928]). Story of the Eye. London: Penguin Classics.

Baudelaire, C. (2016 [1857]). Flowers of Evil (duel text edition). London: Alma Classics.

Bidoonism, A. (n.d.). Beautiful “&” Sublime. Anotherland: The Openbook Duet.

Cleland, J. (2000 [1748]). Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. Ware, Hertfordshire, England: Wordsworth Classics.

De Sade, M. (2016 [1785/1904]). 120 Days of Sodom. London: Penguin Classics.

Desclos, A. [Réage, P.] (1994 [1954]). The Story of O. London: Corgi Books/Transworld Publishers Ltd./Penguin Random House/Bertelsmann.

Haksa, A. N. D. (Translator). (2012 [369 B.C.E.]). Kama Sutra: A Guide to the Art of Pleasure. London: Penguin Classics.

Irwin, R., Lyons, M. &, Lyons, U. [Translators] (2010 [10^th c.]a). The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights (Volume I). London: Penguin Classics.

Irwin, R., Lyons, M. &, Lyons, U. [Translators] (2010 [10^th c.]b). The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights (Volume II). London: Penguin Classics.

Irwin, R., Lyons, M. &, Lyons, U. [Translators] (2010 [10^th c.]c). The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights (Volume III). London: Penguin Classics.

Lawrence, D. H. (2006 [1928]). Lady Chatterley’s Lover. London: Penguin Classics.

Li, Y. (1991 [1657]). The Carnal Prayer Mat. Ware, Hertfordshire, England: Wordsworth Classic Erotica.

Miller, H. (2005 [1934]). Tropic of Cancer. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Nabokov, V. (2005 [1955]). Lolita: 50^th anniversary edition. London: Vintage Books/Knopf Doubleday Publishing.

Nin, A. (2000 [1940s/1977]). Delta of Venus. London: Penguin Classics.

Ovid (2012 [2 C.E.]). The Art of Love. London: Vintage Publishing/Alfred A. Knopf.
 
 

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NOTES
[1]   Sometimes we just sail away and other times we dive deep into the fathomless depths of the glistening Gulf of Aden:

— § —

[2]   Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg spent time in Tangier as it was the home at that time (early 1950s) for William Burroughs — this town too was the inspiration for Burroughs’ most famous work: “Naked Lunch.”

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[3]   Ode to Norton: “We had, we delved, we felled.”

8th Edition, Volume 1 From “The Middle Ages” to the “Restoration and the 18th c.”

8th Edition, Volume 2 From “The Romantic Period” to “The 20th c. and After.”

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[4]   Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky (1891–1970), also known as “Rojan,” was an illustrator who happened too to be a Russian émigré to New York. He illustrated works of erotica and books for children too. He once said, and here dear jay I do quote, “Two great events determined the course of my childhood. I was taken to the zoo and saw the most marvelous creatures on earth: bears, tigers, monkeys and reindeer, and, while my admiration was running high, I was given a set of color crayons. Naturally, I began immediately to depict the animals which captured my imagination.”

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[5]   Pia Enfer … The Enfer (French: Inferno or Hell) is a special department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris that was established back in the 1830s. It is a collection of books and manuscripts of an erotic or pornographic character which, because of their rarity and value, may be seen only with special appointment. It remains one of the world’s most famous ‘Private Case’ collections and currently houes some 2,600 volumes, dating from the 16^th c to the present day. … The ‘Private Case’ of the British Library is a collection of erotic printed books—similar in purpose to the Enfer at the Bibliothèque nationale, the Δ (Greek Delta) collection in the Library of Congress and the Φ collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. … This brings us to “The Secretum,” a museum within a museum that was/is kept hidden from the public. The one at the British Museum was set up in 1865 to store all historical items deemed to be obscene. … being prudish can be costly (I’ll drink karak/strawberry fanta to that):

The Warren Cup is an ancient Greco-Roman silver drinking cup decorated in relief with two images of male same-sex acts. It was purchased by the British Museum for £1.8 million in 1999, the most expensive single purchase by the museum at that time. It is usually dated to the time of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (1^st c. A.D.). The cup is named after its first modern owner, Edward Perry Warren, notable for his art collection, which also included Rodin’s The Kiss statue and Cranach’s Adam and Eve painting.

In November 1952 Harold W. Parsons, an art historian and one of Warren’s past companions, took responsibility for selling the cup and approached the New York collector Walter Baker. In February 1953 it was posted by Thomas to Walter Baker, however US Customs impounded the box requiring a decision from Washington as to whether to admit it or to prohibit it as pornography. It was refused entry to the US on that basis and it took until October 1954 to be returned to the UK, by which time Thomas had died. Then, Thomas’s widow sold the cup to the dealer John K. Hewett. Hewett offered the cup to Denys Haynes, Keeper of the Greek and Roman Department at the British Museum who then sought an opinion from his friend Lord Crawford, a Trustee of the Museum. However, they declined to take it as they thought that they would never persuade the Museum’s Trustees who were chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The cup was sold in 1966 by a private collector for £6,000. It then found its way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (yep! in America) but they then sold to a British private collector. This collector then sold it to the British Museum, in 1999 for £1.8 million.

‘The Kiss’ by Auguste Rodin (1882). Made of marble, on view at the Musée Rodin in Paris.

‘Adam and Eve’ by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586) (c. 1539)

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[6]   American Book Prices Current (ABPC) — established in 1895 — records books, manuscripts, autographs, maps, and broadsides sold at auction in much of the world. It focuses on North America and the United Kingdom but also tracks countries including Switzerland, Germany, Monaco, the Netherlands, Australia, and France. ABPC currently represents the longest continuous and most reliable record of the progress of book prices in the world.  WorldCat — established in 1998 — is a union catalog that itemises the collections of 17,900 libraries in 123 countries and territories that participate in the OCLC global cooperative (subscribing member libraries collectively maintain WorldCat’s database, the world’s largest bibliographic database.)

— § —

[7]   Jindřich Štyrský (1899–1942) was a Czech Surrealist painter, poet, editor, photographer, and graphic artist. His oeuvre included numerous book covers and illustrations and a study of the Marquis de Sade. In addition to his Edition 69 series, he edited the Erotická revue, which he himself launched in 1930.

The Mary and Roy Cullen Collection

69

The B all

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[8]   Paul-Émile Bécat (1885–1960) was a French painter, printmaker and engraver, and was awarded first prize in the Prix de Rome in 1920. Bécat specialised in the technique of drypoint in his erotic works.

Paul-Émile Bécat

Paul-Émile Bécat

Paul-Émile Bécat

— § —

[9]

Terry Rodgers (n.d.)

Terry Rodgers (n.d.)

“The Uncertainty Principle” Terry Rodgers (2003)

“The delicate process of limiting access” (2005)

“Trophy wives” Terry Rodgers (n.d.)

ENGLISH LIT.

English style guide
The English language
Booker / “Nobel” / Pulitzer
Elizabethan era / “Love letters”
“Definitive List of Literary Works”
French in English / Latin in English
Anthology / Chronology / Terminology
Phrases & idioms with their etymologies
Literary criticism: analysing poetry & prose
Glossary of works, writers and literary devices:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
📙 Books       📕 Poets       📗 Thinkers       📘 Writers

READING LISTS ETC.

BOOKS OF FICTION ⅋ 📙 120 Days of Sodom 📙 Aeneid 📙 Agamemnon 📙 The Arabian Nights 📙 The Art of Love 📙 Astrophil and Stella 📙 The Bell Jar 📙 Brave New World 📙 The Carnal Prayer Mat 📙 Catch-22 📙 An Opium-Eater 📙 Delta of Venus 📙 The Divine Comedy 📙 Dubliners 📙 Fanny Hill 📙 Flowers of Evil 📙 Gilgamesh 📙 Heart of Darkness 📙 Iliad 📙 The Kama Sutra 📙 King James Bible 📙 Lady and the Dog 📙 Lady Chatterley’s Lover 📙 Lolita 📙 Lord of the Files 📙 Madame Bovary 📙 Metamorphoses 📙 Metamorphosis 📙 Milk and Honey 📙 1984 📙 Odyssey 📙 The Old Man and the Sea 📙 The Oresteia 📙 The Perfumed Garden 📙 The Secret Sharer 📙 Snows of Kilimanjaro 📙 Song of Solomon 📙 Story of O 📙 Story of the Eye 📙 The Trial 📙 Theogony 📙 Tropic of Cancer 📙 Ulysses 📙 Willian Wilson 📙 Yellow Wallpaper NON-FICTION BOOKS ⅋ 📙 The Adventure of English 📙 Amusing Ourselves to Death 📙 An Apology for Poetry 📙 De Profundis 📙 A Defence of Poetry 📙 Dream of Enlightenment 📙 Dream of Reason 📙 English as a Global Language 📙 The Four Ages of Poetry 📙 Future Shock 📙 The Golden Bough 📙 Guns, Germs, and Steel 📙 Hammer of Witches 📙 Handbook of Philosophy 📙 History of Philosophy 📙 Illustrated Philosophy 📙 Imagined Communities 📙 The Magic of Reality 📙 Manufacturing Consent 📙 Norton Anthology of English 📙 On Bullshit 📙 Orientalism 📙 Oxford Book of English Verse 📙 Public Opinion 📙 Pursuits of Wisdom 📙 Sapiens 📙 Why We Sleep

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The Prophet “If you love somebody, let them go, if they don’t return, they were never yours.”	The Essential Rumi “Lovers do not finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along.”
Ways of Escape: a journey of sorts A short excerpt from the book: “I was dead, deader than dead because, I was still alive.”	The Significance of Literature A podcast series that chronologically charts the key works of poetry and prose.

The Prophet “If you love somebody, let them go, if they don’t return, they were never yours.”	The Essential Rumi “Lovers do not finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along.”
Ways of Escape: a journey of sorts A short excerpt from the book: “I was dead, deader than dead because, I was still alive.”	The Significance of Literature A podcast series that chronologically charts the key works of poetry and prose.