CURIOSA Marquise de MANNOURY d'ECTOT - Le roman... Lot 83

[CURIOSA] Marquise de MANNOURY d'ECTOT - Le roman de Violete From Antonia Da Boa-Vista in Lisbon 1870 [Bruxelles, Auguste Brancart, 1883] - A superb copy of the first edition of this very rare erotic novel. Beautiful, sober period binding in green half-percaline cloth with smooth spine and red morocco title-piece, title and author in gilt, original covers preserved. Beautifully printed on laid paper, totally free of foxing. This copy includes the very rare suite of 6 etchings by Frédillo, pseudonym of Louis-Alfred Boisserand, a cartoonist highly specialized in erotic and curiosa drawings. This suite is exceptionally in three states, one of which has been watercolored (enhanced) by hand in full color, the only known copy with such work. "Although attributed to Guy de Maupassant or Alexandre Dumas [...], this text is by the Marquise de Mannoury d'Ectot. The style of this novel is quite identical to that of Les Cousines de la colonelle. This marquise, a friend of Théodore Hannon, is said to have first presented the Roman de Violette to Gay, who turned it down. The young girl, escaped from a fashion boutique to fall into the arms of a delicate young vivacious man, is graciously naïve at first, only to be initiated with the best taste into all the voluptuous perversions that her lover ingenuously teaches her. She left her frail health to these exhausting games, and at her grave, her two lovers, Christian and the Countess, mourned her for a long time, not without evoking her memory in loving embraces." Dutel 762 In-12, 198pp.