Paris, 1833.
18mo [115 x 70 mm] of: 206 pp., 36 pp., 1 watercolored frontispiece, 7 colored engravings, 9 original gouaches added. Full green shagreen, gilt and blind-stamped fillets on the covers, spine ribbed and finely decorated, gilt edges. Contemporary binding.
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First edition of the utmost rarity. Extremely rare volume of a powerful eroticism both by the text and the illustration. Gay, Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l’amour, aux femmes, …, p. 89.
This volume is so rare that Gay, in his Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l’amour quotes it, but doesn’t mention any copy in private hands or at auction.
“This book also contains a brochure entitled: ‘Gaudrioles’, in 36 pages. Sentence inserted into the Moniteur of June 9, 1839” (Gay).
This compilation encloses 5 tales by La Fontaine: “Le Juge de Mesle, Le Paysan qui avait offensé son seigneur, Le Faiseur d’oreilles, L’Anneau d’Hans Carvel, Le Muletier“.
Constantly prosecuted, especially in the 19th century, the destruction of this edition was ordered by court arrest in Vienna on December 12, 1838, inserted into the Moniteur of June 9, 1839. Engravings meant to illustrate this compilation and in particular those entitled le Mal d’aventure, Tirliberly, l’Hospitalière, la Puce, la Planche, were also sentenced by decision of the Seine criminal court on March 6, 1852.
The volume forms a real erotic object; our copy is adorned with a licentious title hand-painted at the time and dated 1804, 6 full-page licentious engravings watercolored at the time enhanced with a gilt frame. The volume was also enriched with 9 original erotic gouaches of a rare intensity and modernity. These original illustrations were painted on the blank leaves bound at the beginning and at the end of the volume, magnifying it into a true antiquarian erotic unica.
Localization of the copies: only 1 in the world, at the B.n.F.!
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