333 images (+111)

engraving ↘↖

John Ruskin, 1819-1900. The great English critic probably died a virgin, and his own sexuality was probably somewhere in the orbit of pedophilia.  He is famous for having refused to have sex with his bride, Effie Gray, after learning on their wedding night that “there were certain circumstances in her person” which were not “formed to excite passion”.  Pubic hair?  Menstrual blood?  Inner labia?  The debate rages on. Anyway, it took him by surprise.

John Ruskin, 1819-1900.

The great English critic probably died a virgin, and his own sexuality was probably somewhere in the orbit of pedophilia.  He is famous for having refused to have sex with his bride, Effie Gray, after learning on their wedding night that “there were certain circumstances in her person” which were not “formed to excite passion”.  Pubic hair?  Menstrual blood?  Inner labia?  The debate rages on.

Anyway, it took him by surprise.

4 November 2011 • early 1800s engraving virginity pubic hair wedding suit

Perhaps this a bit of a crossover from the librarian theme.  For whatever reason, there are a great many of erotic ex libris prints.  I remember finding one, as a young man, with a rather sadoerotic image of St. Agatha having her breasts cut off, and the caption: This Book Torn From the Breast of ______. Above, we have wheat and acorns.  Hmmm.

Perhaps this a bit of a crossover from the librarian theme.  For whatever reason, there are a great many of erotic ex libris prints.  I remember finding one, as a young man, with a rather sadoerotic image of St. Agatha having her breasts cut off, and the caption: This Book Torn From the Breast of ______.

Above, we have wheat and acorns.  Hmmm.

(Source: schundundschmutz)

8 May 2011 • reblog: schundundschmutz • books ex libris engraving cock balls

I believe this is an 18th-century French print depicting a man and a woman riding the “Spanish Donkey” during the Inquisition. Pro Tip:  Pretty much anything in the format [National Adjective] [Bad News] is misattributed or at least oversimplified.  Cf. German measles, Japanese bondage, the English vice, the Nigerian Scam.  Depending on who you ask, syphilis is “the French/British/Italian/Spanish/Polish/Christian/White people’s disease”… The Spanish Inquisition (whom no one expects) attracted these sorts of legends for the obvious reason that they really did suck, and no one wants to split hairs about how awful they were.  In this sense, black legends provide a counterpoint to revisionist whitewashing like holocaust denial literature.  But they are equally damaging to the historical evidence.

I believe this is an 18th-century French print depicting a man and a woman riding the “Spanish Donkey” during the Inquisition.

Pro Tip:  Pretty much anything in the format [National Adjective] [Bad News] is misattributed or at least oversimplified.  Cf. German measles, Japanese bondage, the English vice, the Nigerian Scam.  Depending on who you ask, syphilis is “the French/British/Italian/Spanish/Polish/Christian/White people’s disease”…

The Spanish Inquisition (whom no one expects) attracted these sorts of legends for the obvious reason that they really did suck, and no one wants to split hairs about how awful they were.  In this sense, black legends provide a counterpoint to revisionist whitewashing like holocaust denial literature.  But they are equally damaging to the historical evidence.

20 February 2011 • 1700s co-submission engraving female sub inquisition male sub torture wooden horse black legend religion politics

 Versions of the wooden horse proper have existed (or been attributed to) many cultures, so understandably it has lots of different names. The standard version is the “horse” or “rail” or “Spanish donkey.” Sharper versions, meant to actually penetrate an orifice, have been called the “Judas Cradle,” the “veille,” and (in BDSM) the “one bar prison.”

 Versions of the wooden horse proper have existed (or been attributed to) many cultures, so understandably it has lots of different names. The standard version is the “horse” or “rail” or “Spanish donkey.” Sharper versions, meant to actually penetrate an orifice, have been called the “Judas Cradle,” the “veille,” and (in BDSM) the “one bar prison.”

20 February 2011 • pen and ink woodcut engraving photo late 1800s 1700s wooden horse judas cradle rail torture

There is a weird OCD-ness to corporal punishment and the related aspects of BDSM.  Very often, people are obsessed with the number of blows, or with making the victim count them out loud. The British Royal Navy generally punished older sailors with twelve blows, either on the back (for the older sailors) or on the buttocks (for younger sailors).  Pirates upped that punishment to 39 blows, the so-called “Law of Moses,” with the story usually being that 40 blows is a lethal amount, so 39 is just short of that.  (I am pretty sure the biblical reference is spurious.) Murre often points out that other submissives have to endure longer or harsher punishments than I do.  Which is probably true.  I’ve read about people getting spanked or flogged hundreds of times. But….but…..it’s all a matter of how hard the blows are.  Right?

There is a weird OCD-ness to corporal punishment and the related aspects of BDSM.  Very often, people are obsessed with the number of blows, or with making the victim count them out loud.

The British Royal Navy generally punished older sailors with twelve blows, either on the back (for the older sailors) or on the buttocks (for younger sailors).  Pirates upped that punishment to 39 blows, the so-called “Law of Moses,” with the story usually being that 40 blows is a lethal amount, so 39 is just short of that.  (I am pretty sure the biblical reference is spurious.)

Murre often points out that other submissives have to endure longer or harsher punishments than I do.  Which is probably true.  I’ve read about people getting spanked or flogged hundreds of times.

But….but…..it’s all a matter of how hard the blows are.  Right?

25 January 2011 • engraving late 1800s flogger cat-o-nine-tails pirates

Pressing Margaret Clitheroe to Death, engraving, 1800s. Pressing, or “Peine Forte et Dure,” is one of the most international forms of torture (and execution).  The bulk of all the torture devices that humanity has dreamt up are some variation on the press: presses for fingers, for feet, for shins, for the skull, for the whole body.  At Abu Ghraib, prisoners were pressed between guerneys—very much like St. Margaret, above—and piled on top of each other for a similar effect. It would be relatively simple to do this safely in the context of a BDSM scene.  But we don’t.  With the exception of nipple clamps and clothespins (which are, themselves, absent from “real torture”), no one seems to have a kink for pressing devices. I wrote about this pattern last year.  Even though kink borrows tropes from lots of horrible places—torture, prisons, rape, domestic abuse, livestock—we tend to modify them in ways that make it readily identifiable what’s going on.  Not always, but often.

Pressing Margaret Clitheroe to Death, engraving, 1800s.

Pressing, or “Peine Forte et Dure,” is one of the most international forms of torture (and execution).  The bulk of all the torture devices that humanity has dreamt up are some variation on the press: presses for fingers, for feet, for shins, for the skull, for the whole body.  At Abu Ghraib, prisoners were pressed between guerneys—very much like St. Margaret, above—and piled on top of each other for a similar effect.

It would be relatively simple to do this safely in the context of a BDSM scene.  But we don’t.  With the exception of nipple clamps and clothespins (which are, themselves, absent from “real torture”), no one seems to have a kink for pressing devices.

I wrote about this pattern last year.  Even though kink borrows tropes from lots of horrible places—torture, prisons, rape, domestic abuse, livestock—we tend to modify them in ways that make it readily identifiable what’s going on.  Not always, but often.

30 June 2010 • pressing torture engraving female sub Mf execution religion clothed sub early 1800s

This is from an edition of I Modi in the 1700s.  To avoid the censors, all the characters are supposed to be figures from mythology.  This would be Chryseis and “Polyenos” (I think they meant Agamemnon.)  And that would be a bundle of sticks, the favorite whipping implement throughout the middle ages and well beyond. She looks kinda bored.

This is from an edition of I Modi in the 1700s.  To avoid the censors, all the characters are supposed to be figures from mythology.  This would be Chryseis and “Polyenos” (I think they meant Agamemnon.)  And that would be a bundle of sticks, the favorite whipping implement throughout the middle ages and well beyond.

She looks kinda bored.

31 May 2010 • 1700s I modi M/f censorship engraving half-standing missionary stick bundle vaginal sex whipping mythology muscles