Apr 15, 2002 - Sale 1931

Sale 1931 - Lot 185

Price Realized: $ 5,290
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
MY WORK CAN'T BE MECHANIZED(EROTICA) <>
Mrs. Oliver Harriman's Book of Etiquette. <> Conceived, compiled, and collaged by Allen Porter, a. k. a. Mr. Museum. With more than 135 photographs depicting a full range of sexual activity, including 130 anonymous photographs, and original prints by platt lynes, bruce of los angeles<>, and von gloeden.<> Albumen, printing-out paper, and silver prints, 6 3/4x4 3/4 inches and smaller, most with a text applied to the photograph or to the leaf. Small 4to, cloth, defective; contents bound. New York, 1930s
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A wickedly funny paean to sexual desire created by the debonair Allen Porter, an administrator at the Museum of Modern Art by day, who was a card carrying member of New York's smart set and habitue of the gay male sub-culture by night. Porter had a heyday appropriating this primer, tweaking the Miss Manners society in which he flourished. Pictured are recreational, religious, acrobatic, mindless, sailor, and the ever popular orificial [sic] varieties of sexuality, deconstructed with witty cut-out captions and headlines, such as: Sticking Up for Steichen; President Gets in Some Good Licks; You're Probably Going to Blow It; and countless others.<