London: David Nutt (1893). 8vo. 130pp. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Charles Sayle (1864-1924) was at the center of the Uranian group of poets and exchanged correspondence with quite a few of the 1890s group, including Oscar Browning, Edward Carpenter, John Gambril Nicholson and Ernest Dowson. This is his third collection of poetry and perhaps the most overtly Uranian in tone (with poems dedicated to Richard Barnfield and Ernest Dowson). Sayle graduated from Oxford with honors and became a bibliographer at the University Library in Cambridge, where he completed several treatises on the collections there. Timothy d’Arch Smith (Love in Earnest @ 80-81) relates an amusing story of a visit by Henry James to Cambridge in 1909 where he was entertained, rather unsuccessfully, by Sayle. One of 20 special copies on Japanese vellum, bound in full morocco, gilt edges, five raised bands on spine, marbled endpapers. Inscribed on front endpaper to Maud Luxmoore by the author in 1899. The book is in very good condition, some sunning to leather, several small light stains, light foxing to front and rear endpapers. More

Berlin: Fritz Gurlitt Verlag (1923) lg 4to. The classical erotic elegies of Tibullus are illustrated with five homoerotic and romantic etchings of young men engaged in various pastoral activities. Although not explicit, the images are quite sensitive and beautifully conceived. One of a total edition of 220 copies, this is example LVII. Each plate by Schoff is signed in pencil. Very good in original red boards with leather spine which is slightly worn, boards lightly worn and very light spotting throughout. Uncommon. More

Cahiers du Monde Interieur. Paris (1964). Fine in illustrated sewn wrappers. More

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London: Printed for M. Downing, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield (1738). 28pp. The Society for the Reformation of Manners was founded in the Tower Hamlets area of London in 1691. Its espoused aims were the suppression of profanity, immorality, and other lewd activities in general, and of brothels and prostitution in particular. One of many similar societies founded in that period, it reflected a sea-change in the social attitudes in England following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and a shifting from the socially liberal attitudes of the Restoration period under Charles II and James II to a more moral and censorious attitude of respectability and seriousness under William and Mary. This document notes that "Great numbers of Bawdy-houses, Sodomitical haunts, Common gaming-houses, and other Disorderly houses, have been suppressed and shut up; and the streets very much purg'd from the Wretched tribe of Night-walking Prostitutes and most detestable Sodomites." The Society flourished until the 1730s, with 1,363 prosecutions in 1726-7. There was a series of raids on "molly houses" (homosexual brothels) in 1725. One prominent victim of the Society was Charles Hitchen, a "thief-taker" and Under City Marshal. He acted as a "finder" of stolen merchandise, negotiating a fee for the return of the stolen items, while extorting bribes from pickpockets to prevent arrest, and leaning on the thieves to make them fence their stolen goods through him. His business may have been undermined by the success of his competitor Jonathan Wild. In 1727, Hitchen was accused of sodomitical practices, and tried for sodomy (a capital offence) and attempted sodomy. He was sentenced to a fine of 20 pounds, to be put in the pillory for one hour, and then to serve six months in prison. He was badly beaten while in the pilory, and died soon after being released from prison. Very good, disbound from another volume, but intact otherwise. Uncommon. More

Portrait of Bob Beberich (2" x 3"). On verso: "Fait de la jouisse de Bob Berberich- matelot, motorcycliste, voiturier, cammioneur (UV par GB)". Signed and dated "1-4-52". Stamp of the Institute fro Sexual Research ("ISR"). More

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One 3pp ALS from Sturgis to a cousin (dated Queen's Acre Windsor, 1917), enclosing an ink portrait of the recipient's mother done by Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Bruce Hamley KCB KCMG (1824 –1893). Sturgis is perhaps best known for his controversial novel "Tim, published in 1891. More

Two ink portraits by the aesthete of his friend and contemporary Edward Sackville-West. The portraits are on a sheet of Waldorf Hotel stationary (4.5" x 7") and each bears assorted notations in Tennant's hand: "Eddie- the portrait of a spiritual attitude" and "Cycle of the Ring- your profile shows your soul of a mystic....your marveous eye...." Sackville-West and Tennant were both sensitive gay men in the circle of The Bright Young Things in the 1920s and Sackville- West is perhaps known as a music critic. More

This silverprint photograph of Sansone in profile (7" x 9") bears several notations on verso- a penciled number ("380") as well as "Tony Sansone/7". Very good, light wear to edges, light small chips at corners. See Massey, American Adonis: Tony Sansone, the First Male Physique Icon,(2004). More

Utrecht: Gedrukt by Pieter Muntendam, naer de origineele en by den autheur ondertekende (1731). 22pp; Gedrukt voor den autheur, [1731]. 12pp. Emanuel Valk (1697-1732) was minister in Velzen (1723-1730) and later in Vianen. In 1730, he was suspected of sodomy and resigned from his church and moved to Utrecht, where he wrote pamphlets about his case. In 1732, he was arrested in Utrecht and handed over to the police of Vianen, where he subsequently committed suicide in his cell. Two in a series of contemporaneous pamphlets issued about the case, very good, unbound, slightly yellowed with edgewear. More