Gaston Raoul Robert Vincennes (1882–1951) had a fertile imagination, writing more than forty erotic novels between 1925 and 1930, not to mention many magazine articles and even a volume of songs entitled Monsieur veut dire (Sir would Like to Speak). L’amour fouetté (Whipped Love) is probably his best known book. The cover, designed for Prima by Laboccetta, may be the only part of the book illustrated by him; it says that the internal illustrations are by ‘Ch. Avalanche’, which if they are by him is the only time he used the pseudonym.

The illustrations are more roughly drawn than those for Mademoiselle Cinglade, which suggests either that Laboccetta was working to a tight deadline – during the mid-1930s Prima was producing more than thirty ‘naughty’ titles each year, from Le garage aux caresses to Un mois chez les nudistes – or that they are by a less talented artist.

What we do know for certain is that Laboccetta also created the Prima cover for an edition of Renée Dunan’s erotic ode to fine underwear, La culotte en jersey de soie (The Jersey Silk Knickers); unfortunately the book has no other illustrations.

We are grateful to Steve Mullins of the Olympia Press website (www.parisolympiapress.com) for these illustrations.