- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: Mark Batty Publisher; 1 edition (29 Aug 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0972424040
- ISBN-13: 978-0972424042
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 1 x 25.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 622,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Synopsis
In London, sex has been sold through advertising cards posted in phone boxes since the early 1980s. Tracing the history of these "tart cards" provides an opportunity to explore the real example of the evolution of vernacular design. This tour through illicit printed solicitation includes interviews with the "service providers," the marketers, "the carders," the printers, and the local authorities who have sought to control the content of the cards.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I didn't know what to expect when I bought my copy of Tart Cards. Perhaps a dry thesis on the typographic development of this genre, or a diatribe on the social implications of prostitution? Fortuntately, this is not the approach that Archer has taken. Instead, she has produced a sprkling, witty and insightful expose of London's darker side. The book is amusing, well written and informative. Above all it is bursting with hundreds and hundreds of tart cards that span nearly twenty five years. The book itself is beautifully designed and will grace any coffee table. If you are interested in design this is a book for you. If you are interested in London, this will certainly fill a gap in its history. And if you are interested in sex (and who isn't) it will certainly entertain you! I throroughly recommend it!
Format:Paperback
This book provides a customer view (and a sort of sociological presentation) of the calling cards of "professional ladies". It is ideal for dipping into for those briefer bathroom moments when a novel or newspaper would be too time-consuming, and would provide light entertainment for visitors.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A Curious Volume Proves It Pays to Advertise
23 July 2003
Format:Paperback
Marshall McLuhan wrote that advertising was the cave art of the twentieth century. He wasn't around to see a particularly interesting manifestation of the cave art in London starting in 1984. At that time, because of a loophole in the law, London prostitutes started advertising in phone boxes. The practice became so prominent that now a book reproducing hundreds of the cards, along with a brief documentation of the history and sociology of the practice, has been produced: _Tart Cards: London's Illicit Advertising Art_ (Mark Batty Publisher), by Caroline Archer, is a surprising and good-looking examination of the legal, social, commercial, and advertising issues involved in the cards, as well as an amusing collection of cards offering many different sexual practices. If you can't spend time in a London phone box, this book will take you there.
Advertising in phone boxes, which belonged to the Post Office and thus the government, was illegal until 1984, when British Telecom was privatized. Enterprising prostitutes saw the loophole and moved their cards from news agents to phone boxes; after all, each card sported a telephone number, and it made sense to advertise where potential clients could use it immediately. Sometimes the women place their own cards, but they more often subcontract this work to "carders," often students or unemployed. Placing 600 cards a day might get a carder 200 pounds; thus mere card distribution is a trade of millions of pounds per year. Catherine Archer has her doctorate in typography, and is especially interested in the typefaces of the cards. A historic typeface from the nineteenth century tends to be used for cards offering mock schoolgirl services or flagellation. Massage services often have whimsical and feminine scripts. Domination cards can have "stern words set in Gothic letters."
Archer is not the only person enthusiastic about the cards in their own right. Cards are traded, like Pokemon cards, and sometimes children do the trading. Some collectors are quite serious in appreciation of the cards' artistic merit or social significance. There have even been parodies of cards, used to promote tours of musical acts or to protest aspects of the use of public spaces. Archer has produced a very interesting examination of the phenomenon, but the best parts of the book are the pages and pages of reproductions of cards, all in full color and unexpurgated. "Have you been a naughty boy?" enquires a professorial-looking woman with a cane. "If you're feeling rather randy, always keep this number handy!" exults one, or "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but whips and chains excite me." There are even variants for Christmas: "Have a Cruel Yule." This is an amusing and handsome book, on an esoteric subject which the author has made interesting and pertinent. Try it on your coffee table.
Got my 1 cents worth to the 33d power!
18 Sep 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The best 1 cent I ever paid for a book (plus $3.95 s/h). A funny look at the foibles of our English cousins, who aren't quite as Puritanical as advertised. Just hide it where the kids won't find it, 'cause you won;t get it back!
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