Taormina : Photographies du Baron de Gloeden

Paris: Editions du Chêne, 1975. Square 8vo, pp. 105. Original pale pink boards, lettered in red to front panel and spine. Photographic detail to front panel. Original bookseller's unprinted protective film wrapper (now split) and card slipcase. Corners very slightly bumped, but a near fine, well preserved copy in the original bookseller's slipcase with price label (160.00). Sepia photographs by Baron de Gloeden to rectos. First edition, trade issue. An edition of 40 numbered copies, with an original de Gloeden photograph laid in, was published simultaneously. Wilhelm von Gloeden [1856-1931] first arrived in Italy in 1877, looking to improve his health. By the end of his life he'd immeasurably improved Italy's tourism economy with his sumptuous landscape photographs of Naples -- and especially Taormina, where he made his home. He is now best known for his decorously erotic photographs of (mostly) male nudes in pseudo-Classical compositions. This collection of many of those photographs is increasingly scarce, especially in such well-preserved and original condition.