Paris Spring

Latvian artist Feodor Rojankovsky, known as 'Rojan', worked in Paris in the '20s and '30s. Famous as a children's book illustrator, his other artistic endeavours were perhaps less well-known but no less appreciated: Rojan regularly illustrated erotic fiction and his output was impressive. His erotic drawings enlivened the poetry of Raymond Radiguet and Pierre Louys as well as many others of the golden age of French erotica.

His chef d'oeuvre, however, has always been considered to be Idylle Printanière (Spring Idyll; published by ER Books as Paris Spring 1933), a "story without words" telling of an encounter between two elegant travellers who meet on a platform on the Paris Metro. Passing in a taxi through the Paris of Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin, the couple are soon passionately entwined... Delivered to a maison de passe they consummate their mutual lust with more privacy - but no less less frantic urgency.

This art-deco masterpiece has lost none of its original fire and brilliance. The original 1933 edition, comprising only 516 sets, is now almost unobtainable and has fetched up to £2,500 at auction.