"Erotic photo album from the Belle Époque, mostly on the theme of flagellation"

[deepsepia]

Found this item in an Amsterdam dealer's catalog. Expensive and interesting. Almost seems an illustration of one of those Richard Manton SM novels from the 1990s . . . a great rarity and expensive ($16,000). Most interesting.

54. [SADOMASOCHISM]. RABIER, Hector (compiler). [Binding title:] Peines
[et] supplices.
[France/Belgium, early 20th century]. 4º (23.5 × 20 cm). Album containing 24 small contact
prints and 153 albumen or gelatin silver prints, 16 photographic reproductions of paintings
or drawings, 2 albumen prints of nudes and 17 silver gelatin prints of sadomasochistic
scenes. Contemporary black cloth, with the title (“H. Rabier—peines —supplices”) on
the spine.

Captivating erotic photo album containing both original
photographs and reproductions on the themes of “punishment
and penance”, which in most cases means flagellation. This
specific album was probably compiled by a certain H[ector]
Rabier, whose name is inscribed on the spine and was possibly
a young Belgian. Among the reproductions of prints in this
album, can be found various images with an erotic nature
showing the flagellation of women by men and women, and
non-erotic images of the torture and punishment of (female)
heretics and witches, including reproductions of artworks.
A few series do not involve women and show various types
of corporal punishment in the French colonies of Algeria
and Indochina and flogging in the British army. A series of
27 images, though not explicitly showing scenes of corporal
punishment, shows life in the Parisian women’s prison of
Saint Lazare, which also doubled as a hospital for the city’s
prostitutes. 12 photographs show wood engravings of the
cruel murder and torture of nude women by Cossacks, most
including the pins used to hold the engravings in place. Of the
original photographs, two “academic nudes” show a woman
from behind, kneeling on top of a chair or hanging face
down over a chair or cabinet. The other 17 photographs show
a semi-nude woman being bound or tortured by “oriental”
men or monks. A montage of small images suggests that the
woman-and-monk photographs, probably suggesting a witch
or heretic being tortured by the inquisition, formed part of a
larger collection on this subject. Although these photographs
were obviously intended as pornographic images, they are
hardly more explicit than contemporary historical paintings
at the Salon, or the images in popular histories.
With the spine somewhat worn and discoloured, the pages of
the album very lightly foxed, some of the photographs partly
detached from the page, and some of the larger photographs
slightly worn and discoloured at the edges; overall both
album and photographs are in good condition.

This the catalog can be found at:
https://www.asherbooks.com/uploads/c..._catalogue.pdf

[Mods: I've not been sure where I should post news of antiquarian erotica-- happy enough to move it wherever you think is best]