In and age where the internet seems to leave nothing to the imagination, looking back at the modest poses of a collection of Erotic postcards to be offered in Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s forthcoming Sporting & Collectors sale 18th September 2013, you might wonder why collectors would be so keen.
A collection of early 20th century erotic postcards
Many of the cards are of ‘artistic’ poses and include several copies of famous nude sculptress and drawings. However, it is the few cards of young French ladies revealing their underwear in public, that turn the tide from ‘artistic’ to (for want of a better word) porn.
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An artisticly posed early 20th centruy erotic postcard
It shouldn’t really be that much of a shock. If you have even seen the brothel houses of Pompeii or the graphic cartoons of Cruickshank, you realise that far from the perception of modesty and virtuosity, sex and pornography has always been around. (Hence I have always considered auctioneering as the second oldest profession!)
That such images would have been considered shocking by the moral majority of the early 20th century is what drives the value of these cards above the typical topographical postcards. International interest form collectors should easily push the price towards the top end of a pres ale £200-£300 estimate.
