Dec 31, 2024
Tony
Fekete is a book collector who for
years specialized in collecting erotica. He's best
known for the catalogue he produced for a Christie’s
auction that took place in 2014 that featured highlights from his
collection. More than
200 books, manuscripts, lithographs and erotic
photographs went up for sale, including
a first edition of My Secret
Life (1888), an eleven-volume memoir that
describes in detail
the sex life of an
anonymous Victorian "Gentleman," of which only
twenty-five copies were printed. The
auction netted Fekete more than a million
pounds.
Tony is a
mobile bibliophile who travels frequently, primarily by train, in pursuit of
books. Born in London in 1954 of Hungarian descent, he worked for Citibank in Eastern
Europe during the mid-1980s where he
cultivated both his love of books and an appreciation for the
region. Today he shares
these passions on Instagram and Facebook, posting photographs of
his journeysthroughout Eastern Europe, that
feature old bars and
restaurants that he favours and, of
course, highlights from his still significant (and stimulating)
erotica collection. I spoke with him via Zoom.