TOM POULTON: THE SECRET ART OF AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN: THE 2006 FIRST EDITION - Rare Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing

Poulton, Tom (Artist/Subject) & Hanson, Dian (Editor/Contributor)

ISBN 10: 3822830623 / ISBN 13: 9783822830628

Published by Cologne, Germany: Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 2006, 2006

About this Item

1st Printing. 250 pages. Published in 2006. Retrospective Monograph on subject. One of the most valuable erotic art books of the 20th century. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, of which are there quite a few. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by Taschen Verlag: Oversize-volume format. Red cloth boards with titles on cover and spine, as issued. Art by Tom Poulton. Edited with an Essay by Dian Hanson. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper by Taschen in Cologne, Germany to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is exemplary in every respect. In pictorial DJ with red printed "wraparound band" (NOT an actual band, but closely resembles one), imitating a vintage erotica title, and titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents "Tom Poulton: The Secret Art of An English Gentleman". The Real Thing. This is surely one of the most explicit and genuinely arousing erotic art ever made in the early 20th century, by a secretive Englishman - no less - and at a time of unforgiving Victorian repression. Accomplished draftsmen/painters of our time have asserted that the men and women depicted engaging in the most unabashed sex acts were real, not imaginary, people. The realism of the drawings is so specific, meticulous, and detailed as to suggest as much, unlike Classical and contemporary erotic art, which usually depict lapidary archetype-figures. These individuals did NOT necessarily pose for Poulton as paid "models". What is more likely is that the artist knew them, and indeed participated in some of the sex acts himself, as part of a secret society that needed the explosive - and also often tender - sexual release that each rendition lovingly depicts. Still, there is also an undeniable imaginative aspect, triggered by Poulton's and his subjects' actual experience or fantasy: Almost every drawing shows "in flagrante delicto", the thrill of being caught in the act by ANOTHER equally lustful, not just curious or voyeuristic, couple or group of people, who then presumably joined in, as committed for posterity by Poulton. In his most ecstatic and graphic images, orgies in which every imaginable, combinatory sex act is enacted, anticipate the orgiastic festivities of contemporary "adult entertainment". An absolute "must-have" title for Tom Poulton collectors. This title is a great erotic art book. This is one of few copies of the 2006 First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and despite its imperfection (slight wear on DJ spine, but it's there) is still in fine condition overall: Every single internal page is clean, crisp, and bright. The cloth boards are sharp, NO bumping at all. Please note: Copies available online have very serious flaws (because they were pored over, repeatedly) or are subsequent editions. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with black-and-white plates. One of the most brilliant artists of the sex act of the 20th century. A fine copy. ISBN 3822830623.

Seller Inventory # 23816

Bibliographic Details

• Title: TOM POULTON: THE SECRET ART OF AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN: THE 2006 FIRST EDITION - Rare Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing
• Publisher: Cologne, Germany: Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 2006
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3822830623
• ISBN 13: 9783822830628
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: no

About this title

Synopsis

The secret art of an English gentleman Thomas Leycester Poulton was an English magazine and medical book illustrator, born in 1897. Upon his death in 1963 it was discovered he was also a prolific and imaginative erotic artist who produced hundreds of sketches and finished drawings of women proudly and exuberantly displaying themselves in ways shocking to conservative post-war Britain. The archive remained hidden until the 1990s, when a collector of erotic artifacts passed it on to a fellow collector willing to share it with the world. Though Tom Poulton's work tells us much about English society between 1948 and 1963, there is a universal quality to these images of joyous, uninhibited sexuality that transcends time and place. The editor: Dian Hanson is a twenty-five-year veteran of men's magazine publishing. She began her career at Puritan Magazine in 1976 and went on to edit a variety of titles, including Partner, Oui, Hooker, Outlaw Biker, and Juggs magazines. In 1987 she took over the ?60s title Leg Show and transformed it into the world's best-selling fetish publication. Most recently, she authored TASCHEN's Terryworld, Tom of Finland: The Comic Collection and Dian Hanson?s: The History of Men's Magazines six-volume set. The author: Jamie Maclean is the founder of The Erotic Print Society, a niche publishing house, and since 1994 has kept busy publishing a large range of books on erotic art, photography and fiction. He lives in London, England.