Lot 52: EROTICA -- DEVERIA, Achille, JOHANNOT, Antoine, MAURIN, Nicolas, NANTEAU and others. [Romantic Album. Paris, c.1850.]

EROTICA -- DEVERIA, Achille, JOHANNOT, Antoine, MAURIN, Nicolas, NANTEAU and others. [Romantic Album. Paris, c.1850.]

99 lithographs and engravings, mostly hand-coloured and some varnished, 1 hand-coloured photograph, 1 watercolour, and 1 oil, mounted into a 2° album (350 x 280mm), 2 of these with 'porte et fenêtre' flaps, bound in later tan buckram.

A UNIQUE AND UNUSUALLY EXTENSIVE ALBUM OF EXPLICIT EROTIC SCENES, comprising hand-coloured lithographs, a small oil painting, a watercolour and a hand-coloured photograph, mostly produced in the 1830s and 1840s, and assembled mid century. Many of the lithographs are full size, and represent the work of the leading French artists, in particular Deveria, indulging the growing demand for 'dirty pictures'. The plates include the famous 'Grand bal paré et masqué', and two with peep flaps. Such albums rarely appear for sale, and often include considerably fewer illustrations.

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