Dévergondages, Souvenirs Érotiques (1937, in a unique leather binding)

With 12 colour plates by DD, and from the library of Gordon R Smith with a signed Lynn Paula Russell bookplate

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

Undated, 1937. First edition. Limited to 390 copies, of which this is no. 36 of 380 on vergé de Rives. Hardback, finely rebound in a unique full leather binding, gilt titling to spine (on contrasting title labels) and upper board, the title page image of a nude lady reclining repeated in bas-relief to the upper board. Top edge gilt, silk endpapers and pastedowns, inner gilt dentelles. 22.5 × 15.5cm, 151pp. French text.

From the library of noted collector Gordon R Smith, with his Ex Erotica bookplate by Lynn Paula Russell, and signed by her in pencil lower right and dated 1996. Russell is an artist specialising in scenes of an erotic nature having been the illustrator for the magazines Janus and Februs, and has produced a number of books, as well as being know for her Ex Erotica bookplates.

A classic of French erotic writing, Devergondages (the title translates as Debauchery, Erotic Memories) is framed as a series of "fragments of a true autobiography." It chronicles the erotic life and sexual adventures of a man who is depicted as a refined connoisseur of the female form.

This edition is illustrated with 12 colour plates with faux plate mark by DD, and with numerous headpieces and tailpieces in red by Louis Berthomme Saint-Andre. *Certain plates have been digitally obscured in the gallery for listing. High-resolution, unedited images are available upon request.*

Note: Whilst the identity of Spaddy is generally considered to be Johannes Gros, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France consider the journalist Renee Dunan (1892–1936) a possibility for authorship.

Condition

This copy is in very good condition but with a few condition issues to note: there is a little sun-fading to the spine, one illustrations has become neatly detached, and there is intermittent light marginal foxing but the majority of pages and plates in good clean condition.