CURIOUS BIBLIOGRAPHY. [Gustave LEHEC]. Catalogue of the secr - Lot 244

Lot 244
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CURIOUS BIBLIOGRAPHY. [Gustave LEHEC]. Catalogue of the secr - Lot 244
CURIOUS BIBLIOGRAPHY. [Gustave LEHEC]. Catalogue of the secret cabinet of prince G*** [Galitzin]. Collection of books, curious and rare objects concerning love, women and marriage. With selling prices. First part. Brussels, 1887. Reprinted London, Charles Skilton, 1975. In-8 of 2 ff, 12 pages (introduction in English and French by W. N. Schors); 192 pages (with 958 commented titles); 48 pages (iconographic supplement of 1890, describing 210 issues). Bradel binding, publisher's canvas, gilt label on first cover, title on spine, gilt head. In a flap of the third cover are added 12 colour illustrations, facsimile of plates by Déveria, made around 1835. Thanks to Jacques Duprilot, we now know that this catalogue, long considered as the catalogue of Prince Galitzin's Inferno, came straight out of the imagination of Gustave Lehec (1841-1922), a very erudite bookseller who worked in Paris, rue Saint-André-des-Arts between 1879 and 1893. Specializing in erotic works, of which he owned a few thousand pieces, he was threatened by the Court of Assizes for pornography if he did not stop his trade. Lehec in order to sell his stock found the trick to publish an anonymous catalogue, which he printed only about thirty copies. In it he described and commented on more than a thousand of the rarest books and prints. This catalogue is now an indispensable tool for all lovers of curiosa and erotica. Guillaume Apollinaire, who frequented the Lehec bookshop, was able to acquire some works from this famous catalogue. This bibliophilic document being of great rarity in its original version, Skilton chose to republish it in 1975, only in 250 copies, each hand numbered.
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