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If you've ever been to London, you've probably seen them. If you've ever used a phone booth in London, there is no doubt about the fact that you've glanced over them. To some, they are as ubiquitous as the guards in front of Buckingham Palace. People from all over collect and trade them. And Londoners either embrace them as a part of their history, or shun them as embarrassing spectacles of a red light they would rather turn off. What are they? Tart cards. The postcard-size "calling cards" that London's "ladies of ill-repute" use to advertise their special services.
And what a beautiful book it is. Tart Cards: London's Illicit Advertising Art is presented by author Caroline Archer as a tour. Besides over 350 contemporary and historic color illustrated Tart cards, the book includes interviews with the service providers themselves, "their carders," the risk-taking printers who produce the cards, the punters (johns) who use them, and local authorities (including neighborhood watch type groups) who seek to wipe it out. To top it off, the book concludes with an eye-opening, comprehensive glossary of the suggestive and coded language used on the cards. Illegal since September 2001, the Tart Cards are now a recognized art form and are collected by institutions and individuals worldwide. If you are even the slightest bit interested in the cards, this book is a must-have. Published by Mark Batty (www.markbattypublisher.com), this book is as beautiful as you expect from a publisher whose repertoire is mostly books on typography and visual design. This stunning edition makes it the ultimate gift or coffee table book—one you will definitely always want in your collection. Below is an excerpt from Tart Cards:  Although soliciting with cards is predominantly a modern phenomenon, it does have historical precedents. In Victorian London, prostitutes distributed business cards to theatres and musical halls; the cards were placed in sealed envelopes that were printed with delicately suggestive rhymes. Victorian courtesans sought out rich men by riding in Hyde Park dressed in ravishing riding habits and beaver skin hats; whilst the street girls walk the pavements 'decked with the gaudy trappings of their shame'. Prostitutes of the twenty-first century have their own dress code and recline provocatively [as the cinema would have us believe] under street-corner lamp posts. A prostitute's body language is a form of advertising that is instantly recognisable, easily comprehended, and as old as the profession itself.In 1956 soliciting on the streets of Britain became illegal, and prostitutes had to find other ways of publicising their services. A new market-place was established when, for a few pence a week, the girls began placing postcards in friendly newsagents' and tobacconists' windows. Amongst the advertisements for bed-sits, second-hand pianos and hedge trimming, there appeared hand-written cards for models and masseuses. French and Swedish lessons became top of the UK's extra-curricular activities; gym mistresses appeared offering instruction in physical exercise; governesses by the name of 'Miss Swish', 'Miss Birch' or 'Miss Cane' advertised their expertise in dispensing 'corrective treatment'; and there were occasional advertisements for those whose hobbies included rubber: 'I make all my rainwear: model available evenings: ring Angela… '. But the majority of the cards were for prostitutes whose talents were unspecified. Printed cards in telephone boxes first appeared in London in the mid-1980s when a loop-hole in the law meant they were not, strictly speaking, illegal. It was an effective and cheap way for the girls to advertise their services; and it was both logical, and helpful for the customer, to move the cards directly to the technological interface necessary to arrange business. The practice of placing prostitutes cards in phone boxes is known as 'carding'. It is a particularly English phenomenon specific to London and the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove where they serve a flourishing tourist trade. Elsewhere in the UK prostitutes still hold to the older methods of notices in shop windows and local newspapers.  The business of manufacturing and posting cards is intense and the volumes involved are enormous, but it is a business where it is notoriously difficult to get hard facts and figures. However, it has been estimated over 13 million cards are deposited in Central London phone boxes each year, equating to 250,000 a week, or 35,600 cards a day. Telecommunications operators calculated in 1997 that there were around 650 women operating in this way in London, touting for business at the end of 400 different phone lines. A more recent estimate suggests that there are only 250 prostitutes working from cards, and if this is the case, each girl requires a staggering 52,000 cards a year and will put out over 1000 cards a week, or 150 cards a day.The cards are placed in the boxes on behalf of the girls by people known as 'carders' who are frequently students or unemployed. It is a highly lucrative trade and the carders can earn an average of £30 per 100 or £200 per day for between 600 and 700 cards placed. The girls pay for carders out of their own wages, and with thirteen million cards placed annually the wages of sin, as far as carding is concerned, is in the region of £4 million. The cards have changed considerably in the twenty years since they were first produced. The early ones were quaint and tasteful, merely hinting at the services offered. Small in format and brief on text they were simply designed and printed in black coloured card. Occasionally line illustrations were used, but they were more suggestive of a lady's hairdressing salon than a brothel. Although produced in the 1980s, the early cards were distinctly '50s in tone with an old-world appeal. As more girls advertised the cards became larger and more distinctive, and each girl developed her own recognisable style. Specialised services were offered and a visual and written vocabulary began to evolve to reflect each specialism. Cards offering schoolgirl services or Le Vice Anglaise had a Victorian feel; domination cards used stern words set in aggressive type; cards proffering massage were whimsical. These mid-period cards carried roughly drawn, but often delightful, line illustrations that projected warmth, humanity and humour.  With time, the market forced the girls to produce the cards that would stand out from those of the competition. In 1993 florescent cards emerged and for a while central London phone boxes were the source of many a psychedelic headache. Today's cards are postcard size and far more upfront than their forerunners. The present cards depend on full-page, full-colour photographic images of women [and occasionally transgenders and men], to put across their sales pitch. The images are downloaded from the Internet and are seldom of the person offering the services despite protestations of being 'genuine'! The wording is a phone number, and a listing of the availability of sexual services. Charm and mystery has gone, and the individuality and originality that characterised the earlier cards, lost.The male cards are late arrivals in the telephone boxes, and there are distinct differences of approach between the boys' and girls' cards. The boys tend to publish mobile phone numbers rather than land lines because they seldom work from a house but travel to visit a client. Unlike the girls, the boys seldom advertise any particular services but merely give their name and number, some also reassure the punters that they are 'rock hard' and 'fully active'! Transsexual tart cards were the last ones to arrive into the telephone boxes and are similar to their female counterparts. Sometimes you do not know if your host will be a men feigning to be a woman or the other way round but it is the ambiguity that provides the fun. However, the transsexual does have the additional obligation to inform prospective clients of which stage of the transition they are. Despite their rich tradition, the days of tart cards may be numbered. On 1 September 2001 'carding' became a criminal offence and anyone convicted of putting tart cards in telephone boxes or other public places now faces a maximum six-month jail sentence or a £5,000 fine. To date, the cards have maintained their presence. But, just as technology and the law brought the cards into the boxes in the first place and has influenced their design and posting ever since, so technology and legislation will eventually move the cards into other advertising spheres. Prostitution will always be with us and the girls are starting to look for other ways to advertise their services. Many cards already carry web addresses and the oldest profession is now using the newest of technologies.
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