[Curiosa] Denis Diderot / Berthommé Saint-André - Les Bijoux Indiscrets [Reliure signée Duhayon] - 1936

Very beautiful illustrated edition by Berthommé Saint-André of 'Bijous indiscrets' by Diderot, a libertine novel published anonymously in 1748, including here two frontispieces and 30 color etchings in the text and on full pages, printed in the workshops of La Tradition.

Preserved in splendid bindings signed by Duhayon, executed in half-camel leather with corner and cover decorations of floral motifs, spine with raised bands adorned with gilt tools depicting flowers, title and volume pieces in red leather framed by gilt borders, gilded heads, with covers and spine preserved.

Charming curiosa, limited edition of 500 copies on high-quality Arches paper in the shape, this one bears the number 63.

Good copy, clean and sturdy binding, well-made, with minor rubbing on the corners, impeccable interior. In very good condition.

This allegory, which is Diderot's first novelistic work, depicts Louis XV as the sultan Mangogul of Congo, who receives from the genius Cucufa a magic ring that has the power to make the genital parts ('jewels') of women speak.

A comparable trope, which Diderot must have known, is found in the bawdy fabliau The Knight Who Made the Fools Speak. The very idea of making the female genital apparatus speak, through magical intervention, is also present in a story by Caylus dating from 1747.

Berthommé Saint-André, Denis Diderot
Les Bijoux Indiscrets. Illustrated with original etchings by Berthommé Saint-André [2 volumes]
Paris, La Tradition, 1936
in-4, 24.5 x 19 cm; 227 + 206 pages (complete)