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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Philip Oltermann European culture editor

Dutch museum to display 200-year-old condom probably made from sheep’s appendix

a condom with a drawing on it
The condom is thought to date from around 1830 and features an erotic etching alluding to the Greek myth of the Judgment of Paris. Photograph: Kelly Schenk/Rijksmuseum

A 200-year-old illustrated condom will go on display with Dutch golden age masters in Amsterdam this week, after the 19th-century “luxury souvenir” became the first-ever contraceptive sheath to be added to the Rijksmuseum’s art collection.

The condom, which was probably made of a sheep’s appendix circa 1830, is thought to have come from an upmarket brothel in France, most likely in Paris. It features an erotic etching depicting a partially undressed nun pointing at the erect genitals of three clergymen, as well as the phrase Voila, mon choix (“There, that’s my choice”).

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