THE HELL FIRE CLUB
SALE CATALOGUE
OF
A PRIVATE COLLECTION ANCIENT AND MODERN
From Medmenham Abbey, West Wycombe House &c.
Description of contents:
The catalogue is composed of items from the Hell Fire Club divided into three sections with a live link to the owners website with each item in the catalogue.
Original items 18th century
Original items 20th century
Original items contemporary
Items owned by persons connected to the Hell Fire Club are exceedingly rare, items of a private devotional nature and items connected to ritual and religious observance have never been available before.
The collection includes ritual and religious objects, books, prints, drawings, personal memorabilia and occult paraphernalia extending over two centuries and collected over a thirty-year period of active involvement with the famed ‘Society of St Francis of Wycombe’ (aka The Hell Fire Club).
ORIGINAL ITEMS:
3)Provenance: Medmenham Abbey, the members private library, a gift of John Wilkes Esq. bearing the inscription ‘Medmenham Abby’(sic) to the flyleaf. John Wilkes deposited a number of erotic works at the Chapter Room in Medmenham Abbey, virtually nothing survived of these immoral books except one in the British Museum titled ‘The Cabinet of Venus’ (see accompanying photograph of its inscribed page) and this set.
INTRIGUES GALANTES DE LA COUR DE FRANCE 2 vols 1695
2 vols fine calfskin by Riviere with fine gilt rules,
all gilt edges and gilt board edges.
Inner flyleaf inscribed ‘Medmenham Abby’ (sic) in the hand
of John Wilkes Esq.
The Hell Fire Club members library at Medmenham Abbey included erotica, anti-Papal and immoral books, tracts and pamphlets of all kinds. Much of the collection was deposited there by John Wilkes (later Mayor of London) whose scandalous behaviour and fame seeking led to the exposure of Dashwood’s circle and the eventual disappearance of The Hell Fire Club from public view.
After the Hell Fire Club moved from Medmenham Abbey to the caves at West Wycombe, many of the books and other material was stored at the house until Sir Francis Dashwood passed away. Upon the succession of his relative, John Dashwood-King, much of the surviving material was burnt or destroyed.
INTRIGUES GALANTES DE LA COUR DE FRANCE is a bawdy and oftentimes humorous gossip of the various lewd and erotic encounters between courtiers and others during the presiding reigns from the earliest times to the authors day.
This set is unique in that it is inscribed in the hand of John Wilkes with the words ‘Medmenham Abby’ and has been verified as genuine by comparison with a similar volume in the British Museum:
‘Cabinet D’Amour et Venus’ copy inscribed in the
hand of John Wilkes. Collection: British Museum.
