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Aphrodite
New York: Privately printed, 1926. Item #06478
Aphrodite in Color: Clara Tice at Her Most Seductive
TICE, Clara, illustrator. LOUŸS, Pierre. Aphrodite. Etchings by Clara Tice. [New York]: Privately printed, n.d. [ca. 1920].
Limited to 650 copies, this example no. 538, with the additional ink inscription beneath the limitation: “One of 110 copies colored by hand.”
Octavo (9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches; 235 x 159 mm.). xx, [1–2], 3–84 pp. Ten etched plates, each colored by hand by Clara Tice.
Publisher’s three-quarter orange morocco over decorative cloth boards, covers ruled in gilt, upper cover stamped in gilt with Aphrodite, spine with five raised bands elaborately decorated and lettered in gilt and black in compartments, pastel patterned endpapers, top edge gilt. With a striking and intellectually playful pictorial bookplate on the front pastedown, juxtaposing religious and symbolic imagery in a manner curiously - and perhaps deliberately - at odds with the erotic subject of the work. A superb copy.
A highly desirable American private-press edition of Aphrodite, the scandalous first novel of Pierre Louÿs, originally published in 1896. Set in Hellenistic Alexandria, the novel traces the destructive and obsessive relationship between the courtesan Chrysis and the sculptor Démétrios, whose passion ultimately drives him to theft and murder.
Upon publication, the work became an immediate sensation in France, reportedly running through dozens of printings within months, while its frank sensuality ensured controversy abroad; early English-language editions circulated privately and attracted the attention of American censors, remaining difficult to obtain in the United States for many years.
This edition is distinguished by the etchings of Clara Tice, the so-called “Queen of Greenwich Village,” whose witty and unabashedly sensual style brought her considerable notoriety and popularity in the 1920s. The present copy, one of the specially colored examples, represents the most desirable state of the edition, the hand-applied color heightening the immediacy and charm of Tice’s distinctive interpretations.
A particularly appealing example, combining the allure of a once-suppressed modern classic with the lively graphic work of one of America’s most celebrated bohemian illustrators.
Price: $950.00