Cars + Women + Paris = Auto-Erotica 1920s

 

Cars + Women + Paris = Auto-Erotica 1920s

Car culture as defined today owes everything to what was originally created at the turn-of-the-century and then after WWII with the birth of the American hot rodding spirit. However when it came to straight out seductive poses of women and cars, the Parisian photographers of the 1920s created the genre.

Here are a selection of what has been referred to by one publisher as "Wheels & Curves". It is no less than "beauty & the machine" and most certainly "auto-erotica" in the finest sense of the double-entendre!

All the photographs in this post are standard size (3.5" x 5.5") real photo post cards (rppc). The sepia toned photographs are unattributed and may possibly be the work of the Albert Wyndham Studio or one of the larger Paris studios: PC Paris or A.Noyer. All the black & white toned photographs are either marked with the mysterious "question mark in a triangle logo" (established as another mark used by the Ostra/Biederer Studio) or unmarked. Either way they are all the work of the two brothers operating the Ostra/Biederer Studios.

The requirements needed to qualify for the genre: a charming woman posed on, near or under an automobile with her skirt raised, giving the viewer a glimpse of her lingerie: panties, garter belt, stockings and high heels required!  The "automobile breakdown" gambit is a natural as we get a variety of views of the roadside mechanic at work, skirts conveniently raised.

I have been a car crazy, hot rod enthusiast since I was a kid and I have owned thousands of car culture magazines over the years, one of my first collections. In all the years of viewing models posed with hot rods and automobiles, nothing has came close to the marvelous, subtle eroticism presented in these 100 year old photographs.

There were also posers with no need to to get there hands dirty who nonetheless found the hoods and bumpers of their Citroens 

and Vivastellas irresistible...

...reading on the running board and relaxing behind the wheel 

and in the back seat...

Lunch time, coffee, tea? ...and dressing or undressing?

A few of these photographs For Sale in our eBay store!

eBay store link at the top of the page

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CORSETS The Hour Glass Figure: French Postcards 1905

CORSETS The Hour Glass Figure: French Postcards 1905

The corseted, hour glass figure of a women remains very appealing and is having a resurgence in fashion as both underwear and outwear. From my archives a selection of both printed and real photo French postcards, circa 1900~1905. It includes views of women undressed in their corsets and of music-hall performers dressed or costumed for the stage and displaying their iconic shapes in hand-tinted 

real photo postcards.

eBay store

 Prostitute with her "madam" waiting for the client to arrive

 

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New York City Postcard Show March 17 & 18th 2017

My next show is the New York Spring 2017 Postcard Expo March 17 & 18th at the Watson Hotel (fka Midtown Holiday Inn) on 57th Street (9th/10th). Friday 12pm-7pm, Saturday 10am-5pm, $8 admission. I will have all the "recent arrivals" as well as my inventory of rare and unusual postcards: nudes, advertising, propaganda, erotica, mechanicals, signed artists, sets, fantasy and surrealism. Go here to preview some of what you will see at the show. Look forward to seeing you there!

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NYC Postcard Show March 18 & 19th

Feels like spring this week in New York City and looking forward to continued unseasonable weather, March 18 & 19th when it's showtime once again! The New York City Postcard Show presented in association with Mary Martin Ltd. takes place at the Midtown Holiday Inn, click here and scroll down for details. Here are some of the recent arrivals that will be available for sale at my table. Prices on request. Look forward to seeing you there!!

Above: hand tinted, close-up "Les Yeux" surreal fantasy face 1925

click any image to enlarge

 Italian ad for eyeglasses 1930s

 French ad for licorice 1930s

 Italian poster style ad for decorative arts exhibition 1923 and Italian ad for insecticides 1920s

 Czech robot real photo 1930s

 Four cards from a ten card American surreal/fantasy set 1947

 Two real photos of French surreal collages early 1930s

 Berlin kitchen/cooking expo 1936 and late 1940s German lingerie ad

 Venice Film Festival 1949

Juggler amateur stamp collage 1920s

 German, circa 1900 pull-tab mechanical

 Art nouveau era lithographed image with added real hair 1905

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FLYING FANTASIES Surreal Postcards 1900 ~ 1930s

Most postcard and photograph collectors are familiar with "studio portraits" taken at tourist attractions and amusement parks, especially popular in the early part of the 20th century. The couple sticks their heads through an opening in a two dimensional painting of a scene at the beach or as cowboy and cowgirl and the photograph snaps a picture. They are fairly common in the United States. Europeans created similar images with a particular twist, often of groups of people in or on lighter than air forms of transportation. These were particularly popular during WW1 with soldiers.

Here from my archives, is a group of real photo postcards depicting both civilian and military versions of the theme.

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And during the period just after the turn-of-the-twentieth century printed versions of the surreal, lighter than air fantasy cards were very popular throughout Europe, especially in France and Germany. Some wonderful examples of what it might be like to fly, by use of imagination and adaptation.

Click here for the Vasta Images/Books eBay store

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