[Rarebooks] fa: OVID - LES AMOURS - 1913 Curiosa/Erotica - w/ Engravings by MARTIN VAN MAELE

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/7djbx8s

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Ovide: Les Amours. Traduit du Latin en François par le Sieur de Bellefleur MDCXXI. Préface de A.D. van Bever. Edition Illustrée de Compositions originals par Martin van Maele. Paris: J. Chevrel, MCMXIII [1913]. First edition thus. Tall 8vo (26 cm) bound in three-quarter morocco and marbled boards, spine with raised bands and gilt-tooled titles and decorations; marbled endpapers; top page-edges gilt; 344 pp.; illustrated with engravings and woodcuts.

One of a limited edition of 250 copies (this one being no. 125), printed on "papier vélin d'Arches" made especially for this edition. Complete with 20 etchings by van Maele (14 full-page and 6 in-text, each with a tissue-guard) and numerous woodcut initials and decorations by Eugène Dété. The text is based on a 1621 translation by Jean de Bellefleur.

A touch of rubbing to the binding's extremities and hinges, light toning and dust-soiling to the deckled fore-edges of the text block; otherwise very clean, bright and fresh, firmly bound. Much of the text is unopened (meaning many of the leaves are still joined at the fore-edges as issued), hence unread. An elegant example of early twentieth-century  "curiosa" (i.e., soft-core erotica) in the guise of classical erudition. The artist, Martin van Maële (1863-1926), while best know for his erotic book illustrations, also illustrated such mainstream fare as H.G. Wells's Les Premiers Hommes dans la Lune and Anatole France's Thaïs.