This auction is for the EXCEEDINGLY RARE BRITISH PHYSIQUE MAGAZINE ENTITLED PHYSIQUE ARTISTRY, PUBLISHED IN THE UK BY BY MIDCENTURY PHYSIQUE PHOTOGRAPHER DOMENIQUE (WILLIAM DOMENIQUE), WHO WORKED DURING THE 1950s AND EARLY 1960s UNDER THE MULTIPLE IDENTITIES DOMENIQUE, LON OF LONDON AND LON OF PARIS.

This auction is for the issue listed in the item title and shown in my scan, and although I will be listing every issue I have this week as in VERY GOOD condition, most of them are actually in EXCELLENT condition, and all issues are complete and intact. I recently broke my complete run of this title to provide specific issues to a special collector friend, and while I had them out, I decided to list the others. 

Domenique launched PHYSIQUE ARTISTRY in the U.K. specifically to try to piggyback on the success of Bob Mizer's hugely successful PHYSIQUE PICTORIAL in the United States. Unlike Bob Mizer and his publication, however -- which enjoyed both great success and longevity -- Domenique's endeavor lasted just shy of a decade, with the first issue appearing in SPRING 1955 and the last issue appearing in SUMMER 1963. Both those issues -- along with almost every other issue published -- are offered in my auctions today, representing a truly rare opportunity for serious collectors to either fill a gap in their run of this title or build one in its near-entirety.

Like Physique Pictorial, each issue of PHYSIQUE ARTISTRY features the work of a number of prominent physique photographers and physique models from both the U.S. and the U.K., as well as art by GEORGE QUAINTANCE and lesser stars in the constellation like ANTOINE, DAVID ANGELO, RANICK, et. al.

This magazine measures appx. 5.25x8 inches, and it is complete and intact. It has a total of 32 pages, with later issues sometimes having 36 pages.

More than perhaps any physique photographer working in the 1950s and early 1960s, DOMENIQUE OF LONDON (William Domenique) muddied the waters, confused his models and customers, and -- in many cases -- kept people's money when they mailed cash for photos, magazines or apparel. Sporting a beret much of the time to hide his balding pate (an affectation he adopted from the earlier, and far superior photographer Edwin Townsend), Domenique apprenticed with the legendary LON OF NEW YORK (Lon Hanagan) in the early 1950s, working in the darkroom, filling customer orders, and -- during the period when Lon briefly had a commercial gallery and studio space -- working the counter when customers would come to pick up orders or when prospective models would drop by to see if they were suitable candidates to be photographed by Lon.

In 1954, Domenique approached Lon with the idea of expanding his successful studio business to Europe, and with a trunkful of Lon's negatives and prints, Domenique moved to London and set up business. There, he operated under the names Lon of London and Domenique of London. When he would travel to Paris to scout models, he called himself Lon of Paris. The original plan Domenique pitched -- to increase the sale of Lon's prints and magazines abroad -- fell quickly by the wayside, and Domenique instead promoted his own work, shot his own models, and whenever possible, leveraged Lon's name for his own gain. At one point, he even launched a line of posing and beach apparel. The more fleshed-out version of this story is recounted in my book The Male Ideal: Lon of New York and the Masculine Physique (Rizzoli/Universe, 2003).

PLEASE NOTE that for several years I've been behind deadline to my publisher to complete my first film book, which I hope to complete this year. As a result, I may slow down my auctions to one or two Sundays each month. I'll try to be regular and predictable, but fear not -- I'm not dead. Yet.

SINCE 1998 -- predating Y2K, remember that brouhaha? --  I've been active as both a buyer and seller on eBay, and during that lengthy period of time I've helped cultivate and educate a new generation of collectors by offering fulsome descriptions of the photographers and models who appear in my listings. Additionally, I take pride in starting my auctions at truly reasonable prices and letting buyers decide the worth of a photograph. But it isn't about just longevity as a seller -- my feedback and the number of items I've sold over the years attest to my ability to make (and keep) my collectors happy.

WHY DO I SHOW THE EDGES OF THE PRINTS I OFFER?  Too often when I've been on the buying end of the equation, I've received a print with a crimp or a crease or a bent corner I wasn't expecting because the seller only scanned the image area. I'm kind of picky myself, so I scan my items fully so you can see any visible flaws. I mean, why not?

THE EBAY APP -- if you're doing your searching, bidding or buying on your phone -- is self-selecting what bidders can see, and thus any of my more exciting auctions are hidden from you unless you use your desktop or laptop to access my titanusgallery auctions regularly. I don't know enough about the technology to determine whether its a simple category/subcategory restriction, or a deep-laid plot to suppress sales, but I've heard from regular buyers who know I generally list at least 20 auctions that on their phones, they're sometimes seeing just 8 or ten. Just a heads-up in case you haven't discovered this for yourself already.