![[GERVAISE DE LA TOUCHE, Jean-Charles (1715-1782).] Histoire de Dom B*****. Portier des Chartreux, Ecrite par lui-même. Frankfurt: J.J. Trotener, 1748.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_10773_0099_001(gervaise_de_la_touche_jean-charles_histoire_de_dom_b_portier_des_chart125221).jpg?w=1)
![[GERVAISE DE LA TOUCHE, Jean-Charles (1715-1782).] Histoire de Dom B*****. Portier des Chartreux, Ecrite par lui-même. Frankfurt: J.J. Trotener, 1748.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_10773_0099_000(gervaise_de_la_touche_jean-charles_histoire_de_dom_b_portier_des_chart123618).jpg?w=1)
Details
[GERVAISE DE LA TOUCHE, Jean-Charles (1715-1782).] Histoire de Dom B*****. Portier des Chartreux, Ecrite par lui-même. Frankfurt: J.J. Trotener, 1748.
Octavo in half sheets (196 x 122 mm). Frontispiece and 20 numbered engravings, all finely hand-coloured. (Some spotting throughout, occasional offsetting from the colouring onto facing leaf, repaired tear in leaf Q2, a few short marginal tears.) Contemporary red morocco in the manner of Derome le jeune, sides gilt with a wide border of foliate tools, flat spine gilt in compartments, black morocco label titled in gilt, edges gilt, marbled endpapers (extremities lightly rubbed, light spotting and light scuffing on the sides).
A HAND-COLOURED COPY, IN CONTEMPORARY RED MOROCCO, OF THE FIRST OBTAINABLE EDITION OF 'THE MOST CELEBRATED AND OLDEST EROTIC NOVEL' (Perceau). The first edition (c.1740-41) was immediately pursued by the police and almost certainly destroyed wholesale: only one copy is known, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The present 1748 edition is the first obtainable edition, and the first to use these illustrations. Histoire de Dom B***** precedes both Therese Philosophe (c.1748) and Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749). Earlier erotic texts took the form of dialogues, rather than deploying the realism and conventions of the modern novel evident here. It was immensely popular and saw twenty editions before the end of the 18th century, most known by single surviving copies only. Cohen-deRicci 430 (citing perhaps this copy: 'a nice copy in red morocco with the 20 plates hand-coloured, with the distinguished collector Mr. A.P.'); Dutel A-510; Eros invaincu 28; Gay-Lemonnyer II, 496; Pia Enfer, 328.
Octavo in half sheets (196 x 122 mm). Frontispiece and 20 numbered engravings, all finely hand-coloured. (Some spotting throughout, occasional offsetting from the colouring onto facing leaf, repaired tear in leaf Q2, a few short marginal tears.) Contemporary red morocco in the manner of Derome le jeune, sides gilt with a wide border of foliate tools, flat spine gilt in compartments, black morocco label titled in gilt, edges gilt, marbled endpapers (extremities lightly rubbed, light spotting and light scuffing on the sides).
A HAND-COLOURED COPY, IN CONTEMPORARY RED MOROCCO, OF THE FIRST OBTAINABLE EDITION OF 'THE MOST CELEBRATED AND OLDEST EROTIC NOVEL' (Perceau). The first edition (c.1740-41) was immediately pursued by the police and almost certainly destroyed wholesale: only one copy is known, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The present 1748 edition is the first obtainable edition, and the first to use these illustrations. Histoire de Dom B***** precedes both Therese Philosophe (c.1748) and Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749). Earlier erotic texts took the form of dialogues, rather than deploying the realism and conventions of the modern novel evident here. It was immensely popular and saw twenty editions before the end of the 18th century, most known by single surviving copies only. Cohen-deRicci 430 (citing perhaps this copy: 'a nice copy in red morocco with the 20 plates hand-coloured, with the distinguished collector Mr. A.P.'); Dutel A-510; Eros invaincu 28; Gay-Lemonnyer II, 496; Pia Enfer, 328.
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