This is a store for those who prefer the old to the new;

who prefer character to shine;

who value owning and using a piece of history.

This is a store for those people and the ones who adore them.

Unique, Classic, Vintage
Books and Antiques

Bosch

Bosch is a bookseller and collector of 18th, 19th, and early 20th century antique erotica and sex-related books and kinky antiques. He enjoys chasing down rare and clandestinely published books. Many of these books at one time or another were ordered destroyed by religions and governments. They often have false and misleading imprints, which allowed their publishers to avoid prosecution and were freely pirated, which makes identification tricky. If Bosch has learned anything from his research of erotica it is that sexuality, in all of its glorious diversity, has been a part of literature and art throughout history. When it comes to sex there is truly nothing new under the sun. Bosch is also a Bondage/BDSM presenter, musician, music teacher and web developer. Teaching and mentoring is an integral kink for Bosch, and he receives pleasure from watching others learn and grow.

Sold here are items that I value. Most are antique, some are here because their quality or uniqueness sets them apart from what one usually finds elsewhere. I simply ask myself, “What would I consider the ‘perfect gift’?” and that is what I try to find to sell here.

I get new items in every week. Check back often and let me know if you have any specific requests.   -Bosch ([email protected])

  • Out of stock
    Naughty Treasury of Classic Fairy Tales, "Translated from the Old Saxon and Illustrated by Sir Rod Q. M'Gurk, Knight of the Brush (np, nd c. 1975) 8.5"x11", 96pp (unpaginated), soft covers, good condition, some minor bumping to corners, near fine internal pages
    Ad from a "Men's Magazine" featuring the Naughty Fairy Tales

    Ad from a "men's magazine" featuring the Naughty Fairy Tales

    I've been able to find a few references to this book and very little about "Sir Rod Q. M'Gurk". He apparently also had his cartoons published in Swank magazine c. 1976-7. Eventually it came to the attention of some illustrators and (with help of former Disney animators) was made into a movie by Don Jurwich (not sure the connection between him and Sir Rod Q. M'Gurk, but I'd love to know if it was him).
  • The Illustrated Fanny Hill, John Cleland, illustrated by Zevi Blum, introduction written by Erica Jong, designed by Herb Lubalin (The Erotic Artbook Society [Ralph Ginzburg], 1978, first edition thus, stated "NE PLUS EDITION") 12.5" X 10.5", 127pp, hardbound with DJ, very good condition, minor tears to dust jacket Written while the author was in debtor's prison in London and first published in 1748, Fanny Hill is considered the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel. One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history, it has become a synonym for obscenity. Dust Jacket shows some wear but in good condition. This copy is an excellent and beautiful "legal" (meaning post-1966 Supreme Court Case) edition of Fanny Hill. It was published by Ralph Ginzburg (Eros Magazine, Fact Magazine, served 8 months of a 5 year prison term for obscenity). The illustrations are beautifully done and have a psychedelic feel to them.
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    Memoirs of Cardinal Dubois | translated from the French by Ernest Dowson | with photogravure portraits of Cardinal Dubois and the Duc d'Orleans (Leonard Smithers and Co, London, 1899, First Edition thus, first English translation) 9.75"x6.5", 2 volumes, xvi-282pp, viii-268pp, blue boards with gilt decoration and titles on spine, deckled edges, good condition, bumping to corners, bookplates for Reginald Dalton Pontifex in both volumes. According to the publisher, the original manuscript which was written entirely in Dubois hand was stolen by his secretary Lavergne after his death in 1723. It was later discovered of its literary value that Lavergne attempted to sell the manuscript. He was found and arrested. They later fell into the hands of Comte de Maurepas, then upon his death they were passed on to an anonymous writer named Mercier (possibly M. Paul Laroix) whose family had it published in 1829. The manuscript then became lost. In 1899 and English version of the book translated by Ernest Christopher Dowson, was published by the notorious pornographer, Leonard Smithers & Co.  This is, presumably a reprinting of that translation. Guillaume Dubois (1656-1723), a son of a country doctor, rose from humble beginnings to positions of power and high honor in government and in the Catholic Church. He is best known for negotiating the Triple Alliance of 1717 between France, the Dutch Republic and Great Britain against their mutual enemy, Spain. Considered one of the four great French Cardinal-Ministers (Richelieu, Mazarin, Dubois, and Fleury). His ecclesiastical career left a great deal to be desired. Although there is no proof of the prevalent assertion that he got secretly married, his licentiousness, and notorious impiety, even at the time of his death, make it evident that he pursued and used ecclesiastical dignities principally to enhance his political position and prestige.  Eventually in 1721, Du Bois was created cardinal. He had the reputation of a libertine and adventurer and made plenty of enemies.  One of his rivals was charged at creating his portrait, the Duc de Saint-Simon, who was said to have placed a painting of Dubois in his lavatory.  Saint-Simon had this to say about the Cardinal: "He was a little, pitiful, wizened, herring-gutted man, in a flaxen wig, with a weasel's face, brightened by some intellect. All the vices - perfidy, avarice, debauchery, ambition, flattery - fought within him for the mastery. He was so consummate a liar that, when taken in the fact, he could brazenly deny it. Even his wit and knowledge of the world were spoiled, and his affected gaiety was touched with sadness, by the odour of falsehood which escaped through every pore of his body." This famous picture is certainly biased. Dubois was unscrupulous, but so were his contemporaries, and whatever vices he had, he forged a European peace that, with the exception of small, restrained military expeditions against the Austrian Habsburgs, would last for a quarter of a century. Leonard Smithers (1861-1907), a solicitor born in Sheffield, was one of the most notable publishers of erotica of his day.  He was said to be a brilliant but shady character who operated on the fringes of the rare book trade, issuing small, clandestine editions of risqué books with the boast: 'I will publish the things the others are afraid to touch'. He was notorious for posting a slogan at his bookshop in Bond Street reading "Smut is cheap today". He developed a friendship with Sir Richard Francis Burton and published Burton's famous translation of the Book of One Thousand and One Nights in 1885.  He also worked with, among others, Aubrey Beardsley, Aleister Crowley, and Oscar Wilde.  With Beardsley and Arthur Symons, he founded The Savoy, a periodical which ran for eight issues in 1896.  Smithers famously partnered with Harry Nichols to publish a series of pornographic books under the Erotika Biblion Society imprint.  When Beardsley, on his death bed, converted to Catholicism and asked Smithers to “destroy all copies of Lysistrata and bad drawings...by all that is holy all obscene drawings.", Smithers, famously and thankfully ignored him and continued to publish his works until his death in 1907.  It was Smithers who published Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life in 1898.  Smithers went bankrupt in 1900 and died impoverished in 1907 from cirrhosis of the liver.  Up until his death he continued to sell reproductions (and forgeries) of Beardsley's work as well as reproductions of the Beardsley's letter asking him to destroy his drawings. Reginald Dalton Pontifex (1857–1951) was born in France, attended Magdalen College at Oxford from 1876–80, getting a Fourth in Law in 1880 and a Third in his BCL in 1882. He later practiced as a barrister. At the time of his death it was said he had quite the book collection containing, several of antiquarian interest. He bequethed his book collection to his alma mater.  Most of his books were printed in the early nineteenth century and many of them extensively illustrated. He died in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England in 1951.
  • Chimie mon amour! Giorgio Balbi 3 x 4", black ink on paper, translated from French "chemistry, my love!" scientist/chemist creating fire and woman, artist's name on back written in pencil
  • Out of stock
    Ex libris J. Mikino 3 x 4", black ink on paper two lovers intertwined as a wine glass
  • Out of stock
    Ex Libris J.K 3.5 x 5", unknown origin, purchased from a collection in Italy naked women, a lyre labeled "Sappho", cupid behind pillar.  Artist name written on back in pencil ("cangoo"?).
  • Out of stock
    Venus in Furs, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, illustrated by Charles Raymond [trans. Fernanda Savage] (Privately Printed For Subscribers Only, New York, 1928) 218pp, hardbound with slipcase, blue faux sued boards, white spine with gilt titles, deckled edges, dark blue slipcase with orange title on spine, very good condition for age, slipcase bumps and rubbing repair to bottom of spine, book clean, pages in unread condition with some remaining uncut Venus in Furs (German: Venus im Pelz) is a novella by Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), an Austrian writer and journalist. It is now his best known work and because of its themes the term masochism is derived from his name, coined by the Austrian psychiatrist, Krafft-Ebing. The novel was to be part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called Legacy of Cain. Venus in Furs was part of Love, the first volume of the series. It was published in 1870. The novel draws themes, like female dominance and sadomasochism, and character inspiration heavily from Sacher-Masoch's own life. Wanda von Dunajew, the novel's central female character, was modelled after his mistress Baroness Fanny Pistor.  In December 1869 the two signed a contract making him her slave for a period of 6 months. In 1873, after the publication of Venus in Furs, Sacher-Masoch married Aurora von Rümelin who he pressured to continue the lifestyle he wrote about in his book.  After 10 years they divorced.  Rümelin, using the pseudonym of the books title character, "Wanda von Dunajew", wrote Meine Lebensbeichte (My Life Confession) published in 1906.  It detailed Sacher-Masoch's private life and her relationship with him. During his lifetime, Sacher-Masoch was well known as a man of letters, a utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideals in his fiction and non-fiction. Most of his works remain untranslated into English. Until recently, his novel Venus in Furs was his only book commonly available in English.
  • Out of stock
    Fanny Hill print 5.5 x 8.25" This print came from someone's private collection.  The rest of the prints I have from this estate are also from various editions of Fanny Hill by John Cleland.  Print is by "PIZAN" and is possibly from a 20-30s edition printed clandestinely in NY.
  • Out of stock
    Fanny Hill print "Kissing me in every part, the most secret one so far excepted that it came in for most of that homage." 6 x 8", hand colored This print came from someone's private collection.  The rest of the prints I have from this estate are also from various editions of Fanny Hill by John Cleland.  I'm unsure of the edition but this seems to be a print from the 1920-30s and hand colored.
  • Out of stock
    Marquis de Sade | The Man and His Age | studies in the history of the culture and morals of the eighteenth century, Dr. Iwan Bloch, translated by James Bruce (Julian Press, 1931, [first american edition]) 6 .5"x9.5", 296pp, hardbound, black boards, red and gilt title on spine, some bumps and wear, good condition for age. Iwan Bloch (1872-1922), the “father of sexology”, was a Berlin dermatologist. His many socio-cultural studies in sexology earned him an international reputation as a medical historian. He also discovered de Sade’s manuscript of the “120 days of Sodom” in 1904, which had been believed to be lost. Together with Magnus Hirschfeld and Albert Eulenburg, Bloch proposed the new concept of a science of sexuality: Sexualwissenschaft or sexology. In 1906 he wrote Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit in seinen Beziehungen zur modernen Kultur [The Sexual Life of our Time in its Relations to Modern Civilization], a complete encyclopedia of the sexual sciences in their relation to modern civilization. According to Sigmund Freud, Bloch's studies were instrumental in the development of the anthropological approach to the theory of sexuality. For example, before Bloch, homosexuality was analyzed using a pathological approach.
  • Out of stock
    Harold Teen, (n.p. n.d.) 4.5" x 3", 8pp. pamphlet, stapled Tijuana bibles (also known as eight-pagers, bluesies, gray-backs, Jiggs-and-Maggie books, jo-jo books, Tillie-and-Mac books, and two-by-fours) were little pornographic comic books produced in the United States from the 1920s to the early 1960s.
  • Dagwood in "The Facts of Life" / Boots, by Luke Armine (n.p., n.d.) 5" x 3.5", 8pp. double pamphlet, stapled Tijuana bibles (also known as eight-pagers, bluesies, gray-backs, Jiggs-and-Maggie books, jo-jo books, Tillie-and-Mac books, and two-by-fours) were little pornographic comic books produced in the United States from the 1920s to the early 1960s. This book is two books in one, featuring reprints of the originals printed on both sides of the paper. Flip the book over and it's a different book. "Boots and Her Buddies" was an American comic strip that ran from 1924 to 1969. Some newspapers presented the strip under the shortened title "Boots". The character of Boots was variously labeled the "Sweetheart of the Comics", the "Sweetheart of America" and "Everybody's Sweetheart".
  • Out of stock
    The Town Bull: the experiences of a young man before and after his marriage Bob Stirling, (Privately Printed by U. C. M. Fall, London, Paris,nd [false imprint. this is a pamphlet, not the book]) 7.25" x 5.5", 32pp., pamphlet, good condition, some fading Erotic story, no illustrations  
  • Out of stock
    An Essay on Woman, by Pego Borewell, Esq., "with notes by Rogerus Cuneaus, Vigerus Mutoniatus, & Co. and A Commentary by the Rev. Dr. Warburton, inscribed to Miss Fanny Murray (np, bibliography on last page dated 1883) 7.5" X 9.75", 24pp., original soft wraps appear to be enclosed in brown wrap, appear to be two pages cut out before the title page, articles from "Notes and Queries" (dating July 11, 1857 and July 18, 1857) pasted into back of the book, followed by notes on legal paper from previous owner presumably trying to verify this edition Sometime in 1755, John Wilkes, together with fellow rake and son of the Archbishop of Cantebury, Thomas Potter (c. 1718-1759), composed a bawdy set of parodied Alexander Pope poems entitled An Essay on Woman, a satirical imitation of Pope's An Essay on Man. In 1763 he was put in jail for political reasons ("seditious libel for his anti-Jacobite smearing which appeared in his 'radical' weekly publication"). Upon release, his home was unlawfully searched and proofs of his "Essay on Woman" was discovered. This is an unknown reprint, as no original is known. I am still researching.
  • Out of stock
    White Rebenque 23" long, flap is 12", white leather with rawhide/sinew stitching and decorations, slight yellowing from age. Beautiful hand-made white leather rebenque 50+ years old. It has decorative rawhide work on the handle and on the strap, using two colors of rawhide. The handle is textured by wrapping a wet cord around it, leaving an imprint on the leather. Rebenque is the name in Brazilian Portuguese for a type of whip used by gauchos in South America. Especially in Argentina, it is the traditional riding, fighting, and punishing whip of the gaucho. It consists of a rawhide wrapped wooden handle with a thong made of a leather strap a little longer than the handle. The wide strap made the rebenque an instrument less severe on the horse than the European riding crop. As the gaucho was never far from the horse, the rebenque was always on him. When not in use, he made a knot with the strap and held the rebenque lazily by the wrist strap with the middle fingers of his hand, or hung it from the handle of his facón knife (as he used the large knife almost horizontally at his back, held by the belt or waistband, the handle protruded from his right side). The rebenque was used also for fighting, as a weapon by itself, when the fight did not merit a knife, or with the strap rolled on his left hand and the handle hanging, as a secondary weapon to the knife in his right hand. Of course, it was also used for domestic punishments, and for quasi-judicial chastisement. A couple of lashes with the rebenque on the bare legs were widely used as a punishment for children, even in the urban areas.
  • The Beautiful Madame Lapuchin, Knouted by order of Elizabeth Empress of Russia, artist unknown Print from: Flagellation & the Flagellants. A History of the Rod in All Countries from the earliest period to the present time The Rev. Wm. M. Cooper, B.A. [James Glass Bertram] (John Camden Hotten, London, n.d. [1869] (first edition)) Image: 7" x 10", high-resolution ink-jet print Paper: 8.5" x 11", your choice of 65lb White or 67lb Ivory Parchment
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  • Out of stock
    SIXTY EROTIC ENGRAVINGS FROM JULIETTE, Marquise De Sade (Grove Press, Inc., New York, 1969 [first printing]) 11 3/8" X 9 1/2", 60pp, hardback no DJ, good condition 1797 The Marquis de Sade published "Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue" and "Juliette or the Prosperity of Vice" (or "vice amply rewarded") together forming 10 volumes of nearly 4000 pages in total; publication was completed in 1801 and included around 100 very explicit engravings. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette, and as a result Sade was incarcerated for the last 13 years of his life. Napoleon called the work "the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination". Justine and Juliette were published sporadically from the 19th century into the mid 20th century but mostly without any of the engravings from the original. The engravings which appear in this book were reproduced from a copy of that famous 1797 Holland edition. This publication marks the first legal printing of these engravings in the US.
  • Out of stock
    Flagellation & the Flagellants. A History of the Rod in All Countries from the earliest period to the present time, The Rev. Wm. M. Cooper, B.A. [James Glass Bertram] (William Reeves Bookseller Limited, London, nd [c. 1908]) 7 3/4" X 5 1/4", 544pp, hardbound no DJ, dark purple cloth boards with gilt stamp and blind stamp decorations to boards and spine, good condition, minor bumping and rubbing, a few stains on lower fore-edge of boards. Bertram was apprenticed to Tait's Edinburgh Magazine and became managing clerk, before joining a company of strolling players. He returned to Edinburgh and set up as a bookseller and newsagent. In 1855 he was appointed the editor of the North Briton and in 1872 of the Glasgow News, leaving to become a freelance journalist two years later. He published "flagellation" pornography under the names "Revd William Cooper" and "Margaret Anson". This edition was published by William Reeves sometime around 1908.
  • Out of stock
    The Sex Factor in Marriage: a book for those who are about to be married, Hellen Wright, M.B., B.S., intros by A.Herbert Gray, M.A., D.D., and Abel Gregg, A.B., M.A. (The Vanguard Press, New York, 1937) 7.75" X 5.25", 172pp, hardcover with dust jacket, blue boards, good condition, some small tears in dust jacket. From d.j.: "This book contains very detailed information about the ways in which the physical intimacies of married life may be successfully and happily managed. It is addressed to those about to be married in the hope that it may save them from mistakes and sufferings which have darkened married life for thousands of couples."
  • the Dialogues of Luisa Sigea, Nicolas Chorier (Isadore Liseux, Paris 1890 [most likely an American pirated copy from the 1920-30's] illustrator unknown) 8.75" X 6", xx 296pp., bound in thin green boards and green tape on spine. Fair condition, binding is loose in places, part of first signature taped in place, rips in spine. Explicit color illustrations. Bookplate of Theodor Reich. In six dialogues, Tullia, who is 26, initiates her 15 year old cousin, Ottavia, in the art of sexual pleasure. The first four dialogues, which are fairly short, focus on tribadism and defloration. The longer fifth and six dialogues introduce flagellation, contractual submission, group sex, and anal sex. (I. The skirmish; II. Tribadicon; III. Fabric; IV. The duel; V. Pleasures; VI. Frolics and sports) Like many sexual fictions, The Dialogues of Luisa Sigea attempts to conceal the identity of its author: it purports to be based on a Latin manuscript translation of a work written originally in Spanish in the sixteenth-century by an erudite young woman, Luisa Sigea of Toledo and translated into latin by Jean Meursius of Holland. In fact, it was written c. 1660, in latin, by a Frenchman, Nicolas Chorier (1612-1692), a lawyer who wrote works on various historical and philosophical subjects. The first French translation, L\'Academie des dames, was issued in the 1680. It was first translated into English by Isidore Liseux and issued as a 3 volume set. (1. I-IV, 2. V, 3. VI). This book contains all 6 of the dialogues and some very pornographic colored illustrations.
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