Lettre à la Présidente.
Paris: Privately Printed, 1850 (1890). Full morocco, 6 3/4 inches tall. An extraordinary and most attractive binding by Pétrus Ruban with gilt raised bands and gilt genitalia tooling to the panels, boards and dentelles, befitting the "indecent prose" of the text. All edges gilt. Limited to 50 copies on Japanese Paper. 'The President', was the honorary nickname attributed to Apollonie Sabatier, (pseudonym of Aglaé Savatier), who was 'one of the most bewitching Salon mistresses of the 19th century', and hosted nearly all of the French artists of her time. She was said to have astonishing wit, sensuality and beauty, and was the muse of sculptors, painters and authors alike. "In October 1850, Gautier addressed a letter to her "buffoonish and obscene, commenting with a Rabelaisian earthiness on what his friend and himself had learned in matters of sexuality during the journey they were making".......Madame Sabatier distributed copies to all her guests and the reading of Gautier's "indecent prose" became a popular event at Parisian evenings." It would not however be published until the death of its addressee in 1890, rather than the 1850 printed on the title page. "Tire a Tres Petit Nombre Pour quelques curieux Sur papier Imperial du Japon" The obscene frontispiece is lacking and clearly was never bound in. With the bookplate of Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls.