On auction block: early pornography

The world’s first known piece of printed pornography is expected to fetch up to $65,000 when it is auctioned next month.

“Sodom,” penned in the mid-1670s, has been attributed to John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, and is described by auction house Sotheby’s as a “closet drama rather than for the stage” with pornography “in almost every line.”

“We believe this is the first printed pornography in English literature, a unique copy of the quintessence of debauchery,” Sotheby’s book specialist Peter Beal said.

The book centers on the decision made by a lustful king to “set the nation free” by allowing “buggary” to be “used thro’ all the land” and then details the dire consequences. The only surviving copy of the book will be auctioned Dec. 16.