![]() Until the definitive scholarly monograph explores the true lineages and a firm chronology is established it would be rash to say when the first glossy cards were introduced bearing photographs of the Canadian Student or Swedish Ex-Porn Queen, but their presence was noted in the early nineties in a monochrome form on a white art surface. Ethnic variants (Black Beauty, or even Indian Princess) would receive similar pictorial support. When more elaborate drawings made their appearance their style tended towards line-drawing in the mode of those advertising surgical wear and wares in papers such as Exchange & Mart: a prosaically drawn showerhead with falling drops would for example be paired with ‘Golden Showers’ or a naively drawn girl in a maids dress or gym slip would be inserted to raise the hopes of the potential phoner. ![]() ![]() Even the seasons were not forgotten when similar ikons could for example be accompanied by a sprig of holly to enhance my favourite couplet Illustrative material was at first largely emblematic, a high heeled lace up boot and a whip carried unequivocal information to reinforce phrases endorsed by generations of use like ‘strict disciplinarian’. The size quickly became standardised (as if there had been some unwritten controlling legislation) to an average 4” x 5 1/2” from the original visiting-card size notices which merely advertised in a local model/ phone number formula. Black on white seems to have been the original scheme of the genre (where is the collector who has the very earliest furtive examples?) but the pastel colours (flesh pink, eau de nil evoking bodies and bathrooms) and heavier duty reds blues and greens soon followed with occasional and rare deep violets. For the latter a pastel shade of card might be used though the chosen colour of the stock is generally random, many utterances being repeated on different colours. This may have its own semiotic niceties as when gothic lettering hints at ancient tortures in mock dungeons or when letraset fancy writing announces the availability of a French Mistress with a touch of class. The generic card for a long while had been the hastily produced single colour card on cheap stock featuring only robust lettering. They would not be there if what my mother used to call ‘ladies of the night’ (although some are gentlemen and others offer a twenty-four-hour service) were allowed, as in other European capitals, to advertise in the Yellow Pages.Īs a result therefore of a typically British act of backfiring censorship, a busy folk art has arose with its own chapbook-like style of design and typography and its own verbal code (‘Greek’, ‘TV’, ‘water-sports’, etc.). Stridently competitive in colour and image they are a phenomenon of the eighties and nineties and are virtually unique to London. This feature first appeared in Eye Magazine Number 34 Winter 1999Įvery phonebox from Mayfair to Pimlico and from Paddington to Kings Cross is festooned with vivid cards advertising prostitutes.
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