La Rose et l'Ortie
Cahiers du Monde Interieur. Paris (1964). Fine in illustrated sewn wrappers. More about La Rose et l'Ortie
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La Galante Bergère ou les amour d'une gente fillette qui portait culotte et maniait joliment l'epée
Clermont-Ferrand: Les Éditions du bon vieux temps (1954). 68pp. An uncommon erotic text with six explicit illustrations, which originally appeared in 1926. This edition was limited to 150 numbered copies and is quite uncommon. Very good in wrappers, light wear and fading to covers. Dutel, 1624, Pia 298-299, Perceau 337 (1926 edition). More about La Galante Bergère ou les amour d'une gente fillette qui portait culotte et maniait joliment...
Banal ou Les Ruses de la Presse
Paris: NRF (1926). Uncommon novel by the art critic and author. Frontispiece by Paul Valéry. One of 700 numbered copies, very good in wrappers, some spine damage. More about Banal ou Les Ruses de la Presse
Three Booksellers and their Catalogues
(NP: c.1956). Soft cover. Essays on Christopher Stuart Millard, Edward Meynell and Douglas Cleverdon. Reprinted from the 1956 edition of The Book Collector. Fine in wrappers. More about Three Booksellers and their Catalogues
Gold Coast Customs
London: Duckworth (1929). 63pp. Two long poems and several songs with a "macabre and terrifying beauty" (according to the jacket). Warmly inscribed to Pavel Tchelitchew on endpaper. Sitwell was besotted with Tchelitchew for many years and he painted several portraits of her. Very good in lightly worn wrappers. More about Gold Coast Customs
The People's Album of London Statues
London: Duckworth (1928). 4to. 131pp. 1st Edition. Hardcover. A survey of London statues, illustrated throughout with Hamnett's delightful interpretations. Included are images of Shakespeare, Achilles, The Fat Boy (at Pie Corner) and various others. A very good copy in lightly worn boards, light spotting to foredege, very good illustrated jacked, lightly worn and marked with small abrasions. Inscribed by Sitwell to John Arlott. Laid into the book are 2 entertaining letters (6pp.) by Sitwell to another friend (one dated 1933) referencing Adrian Stokes, Herbert Read, his troubled relationship with his father, his brother Sacheverell and assorted other affairs. With envelopes, appearing to date from the 1930s. More about The People's Album of London Statues
Far from My Home. Stories: Long and Short
[London]: Duckworth, 1931. Sitwell's only collection of short stories, frontispiece by Pavel Tchelitcheff. original brick red cloth stamped in gold, t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. First edition. Limited to 110 numbered copies signed by Sitwell.. A fine copy in plain brown wrappers. More about Far from My Home. Stories: Long and Short
A sermon preached to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, at St. Mary-le-Bow, on Monday, March 5th, 1738. : By Samuel Smith, L.L.B. rector of Allhallows on the Wall, and lecturer of St. Alban's Wood-street.
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 about A sermon preached to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, at St. Mary-le-Bow, on Monday,...
Songs of Adieu
London: Chatto & Windus (1889). The first published collection of Uranian poetry, according to the scholar Timothy d'Arch Smith in his definitive treatise on the subject, Love in Earnest (pp.24-27). The book was issued while the author lived in exile in France after a scandal involving a seventeen year old boy with whom he had become besotted had forced him to leave England, leaving a scandal in his wake. The poems in this volume deal directly with this ill-fated love affair and were reviewed by Oscar Wilde in the Pall Mall Gazette in the year of publication (‘He has nothing to say and says it’.) Some have argued that the aristocrat who perverts Dorian Gray in Wilde's novel (Lord Henry) was in fact modeled after Somerset. Very good in original parchment boards, light cover wear, spine gutters cracking a bit, spine a bit dulled. More about Songs of Adieu
Bolero-Spadò: Alberto Spadolini, una vita di tutti i colori
Rome (2007). 127pp. 4to. An extensively illustration exhibition catalogue of the life and work of the great Italian dancer and illustrator. Fine in stiff wrappers. More about Bolero-Spadò: Alberto Spadolini, una vita di tutti i colori
L'érotique ou la connaissance de soi: Essai psycho-synthétique sur le rôle de l'Erotique dans l'éducation du coeur humain et la formation de la personalité humaine
Lille: Mercure de Flandre (1931). 42pp. The prolific author writes here of the relationship between erotic impulses and the formation of early personality. Photographic frontispiece. Very good in wrappers. More about L'érotique ou la connaissance de soi: Essai psycho-synthétique sur le rôle de l'Erotique dans...
All that Was Possible: Being the Record of a Summer in the life of Mrs. Sibyl Crofts, Comedian
London: Osgood, McIlvane & Co. (1895). The second novel penned by the author of the gay novel "Tim". Sturgis was a favorite of Henry James, Edith Wharton, and A. C. Benson, as well as E.M. Forster. Very good in line boards, small stain to cover, a bit sunned, light foxing. Quite uncommon. More about All that Was Possible: Being the Record of a Summer in the life of Mrs. Sibyl Crofts, Comedian
Tim: A Story of Eton
Macmillan: London (1891). 318pp. The first of the "Arcadian" English public-school novels written four years before the Wilde prosecution. The story revolves around the love between two Eton boys- "thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." Forrest Reid, among others, admired the work and admitted that it emboldened him to write his Garden God on a similar theme. Edward Prime-Stevenson called the book "strikingly pathetic, graceful and delicately written." It was also much admired by E. M. Forster, Henry James and Edith Wharton. The book was written pseudonymously and went through several printings. Good in original blue boards, slight spine roll, bumps to edges, a few pages roughly opened, rear hinge splitting, wear to spine. Young 3696*. More about Tim: A Story of Eton
A small collection of 12 printed ephemeral items, Christmas cards, and assorted other printed matter from one of the great Dutch printers. Many of the items are hand-colored and several are signed by the publisher/printer Ger Gleis. Works by James Purdy, William Blake, Sandro Penna and others are included. All near fine. Along with R. Breugelmans' bibliography of the press, 107 maal: Sub Signo Libelli (1/400 numbered copies). More about
Gabriel
London: Michael deHartington (1974). The first appearance of this poem, edited by Robert Peters and Timothy d'Arch Smith. One of 20 numbered copies, this copy warmly inscribed by Smith to Brian Hill. Very good in orange wrappers, slight edgewear. More about Gabriel
Bibliothéque Emilio Terry
Paris (1972). Extraordinary collection of books on architecture and design assembled by the decorator and designer. Over 350 lots, illustrations. Very good in wrappers. More about Bibliothéque Emilio Terry
Gymnastique rythmique
Paris: A. Tolmer, [ca 1912]. 4to. Thevenaz was a Swiss-born artist, set designer and dancer who painted portraits of many of the great personalities of the early part of the twentieth century. He was briefly a lover of Jean Cocteau and collaborated with Stravinsky and others associated with the Ballets Russes in Paris. Prior to his painting career, he was actively involved with the Eurythmics dance movement founded in 1905 by the Swiss musician Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. He came to the United States after the first World War, receiving numerous mural commissions for estates on Long Island and Manhattan town houses, but died tragically in 1921. This edition illustrates the principles of eurythmics and is illustrated throughout with black and white drawings by the artist. Quite rare. Very good in wrappers, neatly taped at spine. More about Gymnastique rythmique
Some aspects of printing, old and new
Boston: Merrymount Press (1941). One of 75 specially bound and signed copies for the Society of Printers. Near fine in marbled boards, original glassine wrappers yellowed and edgeworn. More about Some aspects of printing, old and new
Les Androgynes
Paris: Méricant (1902). A decadent erotic novel with androgynous characters, illustrated with 25 black and white illustrations by Maurice Neumont. The author of more than forty books, many on similar themes, she was widely respected in fin de siecle literary circles. A very good copy in illustrated lightly worn wrappers, slight roll to spine. More about Les Androgynes
Hombres (Hommes)
Imprimé sous le manteau et ne se vend nulle part. [Paris: Albert Messein, 1903.] In-12 (183 x 116 mm). The first edition of Verlaine's explicit paean to homosexual love, which includes the "Sonnet au trou-du-cul" written in collaboration with his lover Arthur Rimbaud. The editor Le Dantec refused to include this collection in the modern critical edition of Verlaine's complete works. Enfer 1151. Pia 601 A beautiful copy of the special edition, limited to 25 (this is copy #1), bound in full morocco, signed H. Duhayon, raised bands, edges gilt, original wrappers present, wood slipcase, ex libris of Henri Fischer. With the holograph corrections to the page numbers (46. 47. 48) Van Bever & Monda, p. 67; Carteret Romantique II, p. 435; Paul Verlaine, Oeuvres poétiques complètes, Pléiade, p. 1375; Pia Enfer, 650; Dutel I, p. 170, N° 397*. More about Hombres (Hommes