Victor Vidal. Lot of thirteen early erotic publishers' catalogues, 1920s-30s.

(1) L'Amour a travers les livres. Paris, ca. 1925. 38 p. (2) Livres Confidentiels. Ca. 1925. 26 p. Catalogue on mainly BDSM booklets with subcategories such as 'Gourmandises Libertines', 'Sous la Jupe', 'Sonia Domptée' and 'Esclaves malgré elles' (3) Sous le Manteau. Ca. 1937. 60 p. -and ten more, including two brochures 'Photos speciales sur l'amour', prospectuses in which each has been enriched with two sample erotic photo cards promoting series such as 'La cruelle volupté' or 'Mélanges savants' or Kodak movies such as 'Scènes de flagellation' or 'Petites Amies passionnées' -and a catalogue on 'Produits Aphrodisiaques'.

*Extremely rare catalogues from the France libertine movement in the interbellum. After WWI men and newly emancipated women alike rejected pre-war values and moral restraints. They embraced new lifestyles, and discovered a lust for extravagance, partying, and erotic experimentation that made the inter-war era known as the Roaring Twenties -or the "mad years"- and Paris as the City of Pleasure. It was the fertile soil for Victor Vidal to pioneer the first erotic bookstore in Paris's 2nd arrondissement. This inadvertently started what was to become the first chain of sex shop. (A. Dupouy. City of Pleasure: Paris between the Wars, 2019)