Justin Croft Antiquarian Books

Fine and Rare Antiquarian Books

7, West Street, Faversham, Kent, ME13 7JE, England
T:+44(0)1795 591111

  • Home
  • Subjects
    • Art and Architecture
    • Gastronomy
    • History
    • Literature
    • Manuscripts
    • Music
    • Occult
    • Religion
    • Science and Medicine
    • Social Sciences
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
  • About us
  • Catalogues
  • Contact
  • Blog

Sex

Order by:

(WILDE). YOUNG, Dalhousie. ~ Apologia pro Oscar Wilde. London: William Reeves, [ 1895].

First edition of this defence of Wilde by his loyal friend, composer and pianist, Dalhousie Young.  more...

‘Published after Oscar Wilde's trial, during which Wilde's works were used as evidence of his ‘immorality'’ Apologia pro Oscar Wilde sets out to defend Wilde and his writing. Dalhousie Young argues that a work of fiction is not automatically a work of autobiography; fiction does reveal an author's inner secrets or true character. Powerfully, Young furthermore publicly questions whether it is right that sexual acts between two consenting adults of the same sex should be outlawed (see p. 38), or looked upon as a ‘sin’’ (British Library).

This is the second of two issues of the first edition, distinguished by its darker wrapper..  see full details

£200

Enquire about this
placeholder

[EON DE BEAUMONT, Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée, chevalier d’]. ~ Dernière lettre du chevalier D’Eon à M. le Comte de Guerchy en datte du 5 Aout, 1767. Avec l’extrait de la procedure en bonne forme… seconde edition. Amsterdam: Aux dépens du corps des Militaires François, 1767.

A notorious pamphlet by the famous transvestite spy, issued during one of the most colourful and tangled episodes of Anglo-French diplomacy.  more...

This ‘seconde’ edition issued at the expense of the corps des Militaire François in D’Eon’s defence. The first edition (also 1767) bore a Londres imprint and survives in only a handful of copies; our Amsterdam edition is even rarer with no copies located in Worldcat.

Following a successful military career d’Eon served Louis XV in English diplomacy and espionage from 1762, gathering defence intelligence for a projected French invasion. Living lavishly in London he became something of an embarrassment to his government who stopped his pension and sought to recall him to France. He became embroiled in a bitter row with his compatriot Claude Louis François Régnier de Guerchy (1715–1767), who he saw as an interloper on his diplomatic patch. ‘From October 1763 the dispute took a spectacular turn as d’Eon published allegations that Guerchy had tried to poison him. In March 1764, he went further still and published a selection of his diplomatic papers, which heaped ridicule on Guerchy and his allies in France’ (Burrows, A King’s Ransom). The dispute was a profound embarrassment to the French, not least because d’Eon successfully brought the matter to the English courts and because it drew attention to the chevalier’s increasingly complex personal life. It was in the wake of this affair that the chevalier went into hiding in Byfleet (Surrey), spending a years disguised as a woman and going by the name of Madame Duval. This transvestite experiment became a pattern and the remainder of his career was lived partly as a woman and he became a celebrated figure in London society.

This pamphlet, a superb piece of propaganda issued on d’Eon’s behalf appeared after the comte de Guerchy’s death in 1767 and reproduces the last letter sent to him by d’Eon recounting the facts of the poisoning case together with extensive translations from English legal records of the law case as it worked its way, very publicly, through the courts. .  see full details

£1100

Enquire about this
placeholder

(PERRY, James, answer to). ‘LOVEJOY, Lucretia’, pseudonym. ~ An Elegy on the lamented Death of the Electrical Eel, or Gymnotus Electricus. With the lapidary Inscription, as placed on a superb Erection, at the Expence of the countess of H———, and Chevalier-Madame d’Eon de De Beaumont. By Lucretia Lovejoy, Sister to Mr. Adam Strong, Author of The Electrical Eel. London: T. Hookham, Hanover-Street, and J. Bew, Paternoster-Row, 1779.

A rare satirical elegy and epitaph for the celebrated electrical eel, who could no longer rise to the occasion.  more...

A reissue of the sheets of the first edition of 1777 with a cancel title, of this elaborate addition to the corpus of salacious 1770s pamphlets devoted to the subject of the electrical eel, a topic of serious scientific enquiry and popular merriment. This one continues the phallic joke and manages to draw in the hapless Chevalier D’Eon (whose sex was then popularly debated) alongside the lecherous Earl of Harrington.

‘If the Gymnotus Electricus, lately exhibited to the Public, be really dead, it is to be hoped that we shall have no more of these witty indecencies’ (Monthly Review, Nov. 1777)..  see full details

£2100

Enquire about this
placeholder

[PERRY, James] ‘Adam STRONG’, [pseudonym]. ~ The Electrical Eel: or, Gymnotus electricus. Inscribed to the Honourable Members of the R***l S*****y, by Adam Strong [pseud.], Naturalist. London: Printed for J. Bew... 1777.

First edition.  more...

‘A satirical poem on the amours of various members of the nobility’ (ESTC) or, as the Monthly Review succinctly put it: ‘Poetical smut. Rochester revived.’ A number of imitations and replies were elicited. It is early work by Perry (formerly ‘Pirie’, 1756–1821), a Scottish journalist recently arrived in London ‘to try to break into the literary world’ (Oxford DNB). By the end of his career he had become ‘one of the most notable journalists of the age when the newspaper press was becoming established as a force in the country’ (ibid.)

Studies of Gymnotus electricus by members of Royal Society and their correspondents had captured the imagination of the British public in unexpected ways. While the investigations of Walsh and Hunter made genuine discoveries into the nature of electricity (which culminated in the invention of Volta’s battery), contemporary wits and pamphleteers took advantage of the phallic connotations of the eel and its electrical properties to deride the sexual peregrinations of London society.

In this copy several of the printed lacunae have been filled in by a contemporary hand, identifying Lady Sarah Bunbury and Lady Grafton, among others, as devotees of the electrical eel..  see full details

£1500

Enquire about this

[COPPER PLATE ~ for an unidentified erotic work. France or Belgium, nineteenth century].

An engraved copper plate for an erotic work.  more...

A young man, his erect member exposed, stands on an armchair while observing an amorous couple through a large barred window.  see full details

£300

Enquire about this
placeholder

RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE, Nicolas-Edme. ~ Le Pornographe, ou Idées d’un honnête-homme sur un projet de réglement pour les prostituées, propre à prévenir les Malheurs qu’occasionne le Publicisme des Femmes: avec des notes historiques et justificatives. ‘Londres, chez Jean Nourse... A La Haye, chez Gosse junior, & Pinet’ [but Paris: Delalain,] 1769.

First edition, second issue (Londres and La Haye imprint).  more...

Intended as the first of a projected series of works with the general title Idées singulières, Le Pornographe is an important early manifesto for the regulation of prostitution. It also holds a significant place in the historical etymology of pornography: meaning literally ‘one who writes about prostitutes’, being the first modern coinage of a word used by the ancient Greeks.

Restif issued the work anonymously, presenting it with a preface claiming that the idea was not a French invention at all but one found in the manuscript of an Englishman by the name of Lewis Moore. In a series of letters, the work presents an anatomy of prostitution, noting its inevitability in cities such as Paris and its dangers to public health and morality. Most interestingly, it then outlines a system of regulations, with well-managed maisons publiques, in which prostitutes are required to stay, where they are protected and cared for and where customers are strictly controlled. A major pre-occupation is the contemporary anxiety over the (wrongly) perceived decline in population, a decline to which prostitution was seen to have contributed. Restif proposes that pregnant prostitutes be required to fulfil their pregnancies and that their children should be brought up and educated within the maisons publiques and to take up alternative professions when of age.

This early work by Restif encapsulates both his social realism his utopian aspirations, both of which became major aspects of his later novels.

The imprint is false and the work was published in Paris by Delalain, who sold the author’s works, but who deleted his own name from the imprint after the first impression. The two issues are identical save for the title-page..  see full details

£1500

Enquire about this

(HOTTEN, John Camden, publisher). ‘COLEMAN, George’ [pseud.] ~ The Rodiad. ‘London: Cadell & Murray, 1810’ [but John Camden Hotten, c. 1871].

First edition, very scarce.  more...

Spuriously attributed to George Coleman the younger, but actually a new work, perhaps attributable to Richard Mockton Milnes. The head of the title bears the ‘Library illustrative of Social Progress’ headline. The publisher Hotten ‘had a particular line in flagellation literature, which ranged from A History of the Rod (1870) to a collection of mostly eighteenth-century flagellation pamphlets under the general title of Library Illustrative of Social Progress (1873)’ (Oxford DNB). This rare 1871 edition was of 250 copies only; it was reprinted in 1898..  see full details

£600

Enquire about this

[ANCILLON, Charles]. ~ Traité des Eunuques, dans lequel on explique toutes les différentes sortes d’eunuques… On éxamine principalement s’ils sont propres au mariage, & s’il leur doit être permis de se marier… ?Berlin, [ 1707].

First edition of this extraordinary treatise on the status of eunuchs in society, according to civil and canon law.  more...

Largely based on classical sources, history and (most interestingly) anecdotal evidence from the Orient, Ancillon considers the reasons for the phenomenon (including slavery, household, employment or punishment for sexual misdemeanour). The major contention is that while civil law permits a eunuch to marry, canon law should forbid it (as it did) on the grounds that a marriage could not be consummated. Along the way Ancillon recounts numerous anecdotes of famous eunuchs, notably Abelard, castrated at the instigation of Heloise’s family.

The book was later translated into English by Robert Samber as part of Edmund Curll’s Eunuchism display’d (1718).

This copy of Traité des Eunuques is one of at least two issues of the same year with slightly different paginations and title ornaments. The ‘Epitre dedicatoire’ is signed: ‘C. d’Ollincan’ an anagram of the author’s real name..  see full details

£500

Enquire about this
placeholder

[PERRY, reply to.] ~ The Old Serpent’s Reply to the Electrical Eel… London: Printed for M. Smith, and sold by the Booksellers... L,DCC,LXXVII [i.e. 1777].

Sole edition.  more...

In the Monthly Review’s opinion: ‘A fruitless attempt to catch the Eel of Wit by the tail.’ With allusions to Wilkes, Garrick, and Catherine the Great, among others..  see full details

£250

Enquire about this
placeholder

[PERRY, James]. ~ The Electrical Eel: or, Gymnotus electricus. Inscribed to the Honourable Members of the R***l S*****y, by Adam Strong [pseud.], Naturalist. A new Edition, with considerable Additions… London: Printed for J. Bew... 1777.

‘A satirical poem on the amours of various members of the nobility’ (ESTC) or, as the Monthly Review succinctly put it: ‘Poetical smut.  more...

Rochester revived.’ A number of imitations and replies were elicited. It is early work by Perry (formerly ‘Pirie’, 1756–1821), a Scottish journalist recently arrived in London ‘to try to break into the literary world’ (Oxford DNB). By the end of his career he had become ‘one of the most notable journalists of the age when the newspaper press was becoming established as a force in the country’ (ibid.)

Studies of Gymnotus electricus by members of Royal Society and their correspondents had captured the imagination of the British public in unexpected ways. While the investigations of Walsh and Hunter made genuine discoveries into the nature of electricity (which culminated in the invention of Volta’s battery), contemporary wits and pamphleteers took advantage of the phallic connotations of the eel and its electrical properties to deride the sexual peregrinations of London society.

ESTC lists 4 editions of 1777. This ‘new edition’ is enlarged form the first, but probably preceded the stated ‘third’ edition, with a much enlarged pagination..  see full details

£450

Enquire about this

DOUGLAS, Norman. ~ Paneros. Some words on aphrodisiacs and the like. Florence: [Tipografia Giuntina] ‘privately printed for subscribers by G. Orioli, Lungarno Corsini’, [ 1930].

First edition, privately printed.  more...

The limitation notice reads ‘This Edition is issued to Subscribers only and limited to two hundred and fifty copies, numbered and signed by the Author. The price will be doubled after first of March, 1931’. This copy is, however, unsigned and unnumbered. The work forms issue no. 5 of The Lugano Series.

‘From 1920 until 1937 Douglas was settled in Florence... As his fame grew, he became much visited by inter-war writers, and forged close friendships with D. H. Lawrence and Bryher. During these years he lived with the publisher Giuseppe (Pino) Orioli, who helped him publish several limited editions, most of which were later commercially published in London... In 1937 Douglas was forced to flee Florence after the police made enquiries concerning his friendship with a ten-year-old local girl’ (Katherine Mullin in Oxford DNB).
.  see full details

£75

Enquire about this

GÉRARD, [Joseph]. ~ Nouvelles Causes de stérilité dans les deux sexes, Fécondation artificielle comme moyen ultime de traitement… illustré de 200 gravures par José Roy. Paris: [Hérissey for] C. Marpon & E. Flammarion, 1888.

First edition of this comprehensive study of human fertility, infertility and artificial insemination.  more...

‘Notre livre est surtout destiné aux familles qui sont désolées de rester sans enfants.’ A practical and populist approach to the scientific facts with an extraordinary sequence of vignettes by José Roy..  see full details

£250

Enquire about this
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
Justin Croft Antiquarian Books Ltd
7, West Street,
Faversham,
Kent, ME13 7JE,
England
T:+44(0)1795 591111
Our Terms & Conditions

Copyright © 2019 · Florence Studios