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![[ANDREA DE NERCIAT, André-Robert (1739-1800).] Les Aphrodites ou Fragmens thali-priapiques pour servir a l'histoire du plaisir. ‘A Lampsaque: 1793’.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_10773_0012_000(andrea_de_nerciat_andre-robert_les_aphrodites_ou_fragmens_thali-priapi115319).jpg?w=1)
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[ANDREA DE NERCIAT, André-Robert (1739-1800).] Les Aphrodites ou Fragmens thali-priapiques pour servir a l'histoire du plaisir. ‘A Lampsaque: 1793’.
8 parts in 1 volume, octavo (175 x 110 mm). Each part complete with the half-title and title, and with the errata leaf in part 4, and with the final two leaves of postscript. 4 engraved plates (of 8) by Freudenberger. (Occasional minor scattered spotting.) 20th-century red morocco, with the front and back covers of the printed wrappers of the first four parts bound-in, spine with raised bands and gilt in compartments centred with fleurons, gilt-lettered directly on the spine, the covers with a gilt double fillet border, marbled endpapers, edges gilt; slipcase.
FIRST EDITION. THE ONLY KNOWN COPY WITH ORIGINAL PRINTED WRAPPERS OF THIS MASTERPIECE OF 18TH-CENTURY LIBERTINE LITERATURE. It is the presence of these wrappers that confirmed that publication of Les Aphrodites was delayed two years, to 1795, by the Reign of Terror: the violent period of mass executions which followed the French Revolution. It was a dangerous time to deviate from the norm. Les Aphrodites is the prototypical libertine novel, mixing a lively narrative with superbly written dialogue, a menagerie of picaresque characters, and engravings of the highest quality. Hubert Juin has described it as ‘decidedly the most diabolically well-tuned erotic machine that could be conceived’. The rare survival of the wrappers also confirms that Freudenberger’s wonderful plates were printed and issued separately, and were to be bound in by the binder; the first four parts of this copy, with wrappers, do not include the plates, whereas the last four parts, without wrappers, do include them. As a result complete copies of Les Aphrodites were so rare even in the 19th century that Cohen knew of only one: the Hankey copy, but that one still lacking the wrappers. Cohen-DeRicci 750; Dutel A-91; Eros invaincu 43; Gay-Lemonnyer I, 242; Pia Enfer, 76.
8 parts in 1 volume, octavo (175 x 110 mm). Each part complete with the half-title and title, and with the errata leaf in part 4, and with the final two leaves of postscript. 4 engraved plates (of 8) by Freudenberger. (Occasional minor scattered spotting.) 20th-century red morocco, with the front and back covers of the printed wrappers of the first four parts bound-in, spine with raised bands and gilt in compartments centred with fleurons, gilt-lettered directly on the spine, the covers with a gilt double fillet border, marbled endpapers, edges gilt; slipcase.
FIRST EDITION. THE ONLY KNOWN COPY WITH ORIGINAL PRINTED WRAPPERS OF THIS MASTERPIECE OF 18TH-CENTURY LIBERTINE LITERATURE. It is the presence of these wrappers that confirmed that publication of Les Aphrodites was delayed two years, to 1795, by the Reign of Terror: the violent period of mass executions which followed the French Revolution. It was a dangerous time to deviate from the norm. Les Aphrodites is the prototypical libertine novel, mixing a lively narrative with superbly written dialogue, a menagerie of picaresque characters, and engravings of the highest quality. Hubert Juin has described it as ‘decidedly the most diabolically well-tuned erotic machine that could be conceived’. The rare survival of the wrappers also confirms that Freudenberger’s wonderful plates were printed and issued separately, and were to be bound in by the binder; the first four parts of this copy, with wrappers, do not include the plates, whereas the last four parts, without wrappers, do include them. As a result complete copies of Les Aphrodites were so rare even in the 19th century that Cohen knew of only one: the Hankey copy, but that one still lacking the wrappers. Cohen-DeRicci 750; Dutel A-91; Eros invaincu 43; Gay-Lemonnyer I, 242; Pia Enfer, 76.
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