Beschreibung:

ROMANTIC ALBUM – A collection of 19th-century erotic plates from the Galitzin collection.
ROMANTIC ALBUM – A collection of 19th-century erotic plates from the Galitzin collection. 76 plates from 7 or more works, in one volume, quarto (340 x 260 mm). Mid-19th-century green half calf over marbled-paper covered boards, gilt spine, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Provenance : Prince Galitzin -- Alfred Bégis (very small photographic portrait on free endpaper). A UNIQUE ROMANTIC ALBUM WITH AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE AND RARE PROVENANCE: ONE OF ONLY THREE KNOWN BOOKS FROM THE LEGENDARY GALITZIN COLLECTION . Duprilot in his study of Galitzin writes: ‘except for Serrefesse , and the album of Exercises gymnastiques ... books described by Lehec [from Galitzin's collection] are not to be found in any known erotic collection, public or private'. This fine album then passed into the equally famous collection of Alfred Bégis which, after being seized by the French state, formed the core of the ‘Enfer’ of the Bibliothèque nationale. Bégis’s biblio-martyrdom is well documented by Apollinaire in his introduction to the catalogue of the Enfer collection. This album conforms to item 13 in Galitzin’s Supplément iconographique , and comprises: Physiologie des Etudiants de Paris (8 plates); Musée des artistes (5 plates); Romans (6 plates); Revue dramatique (10 plates); Scènes théatrales et acrobates (6 plates); Danseurs (3 plates); and a collection of lithographic calling cards of Parisian prostitutes (38 cards mounted on 8 sheets). Apollinaire Enfer , pp.6-7; Duprilot, L’énigme du catalogue du cabinet secret du Prince G*** ’p.107; Galitzin 154.