Mad Collectors #6
by Jilliana
Ranicar-Breese
Magical Martin
and I spent a couple of weeks in communist
Budapest in the early 80s so naturally I had to
go to the weekend flea market. There was nothing
much to buy for my international clients in
London, Paris and New York until I saw a watch
dealer selling an old looking erotic timepiece in
the form of a fob watch. It was ticktocking away
and if you lifted the underside lid, a copulating
couple were at it tick and tocking away! But was
it an original or a repro? I had no way of
knowing as I was not a timepiece expert but I
certainly had had years of experience dealing in
erotic sepia 1920s postcards, photographs, prints
and stereo cards in Paris. Having bought nothing
else in Budapest, I decided to risk it and
purchased my first time piece!
Back I went to Paris with my trophy. I had to be
careful who I saw it but finally showed it to my
toy dealer colleague Denis Ozanne who also owned
an art bookshop in the 6em (today in the 9em). He
said I had to meet THE number one Erotica
collector in Paris and would arrange a discrete
personal introduction.
Thus I entered the world of affluent Alain Khan-Scriber.
Not knowing what or who to expect, I was invited
to his office. There I encountered a handsome,
virile, dynamic Jewish 'something in the city'
businessman connected with finance. But despite
his office being contemporary and small, it
housed, standing proudly in the corner, a
gigantic phallus made of glass! The man had a
sense of humour for sure. I didn't comment of
course but glanced casually like it was a normal
every day object to see. After all who else
would dare to have such a piece of art in his
private office?
Time to look at my timely treasure. Alain
examined it carefully with a loupe but thought it
wasn't original however he made a phone call to a
friend only to be told to ring back at ten to the
hour. Why I enquired? Alain laughed and said he
was a psychiatrist and his patient would go at
ten to! An appointment only lasted 50 minutes. No,
that collector didn't want my fob because he
already had one and it was a fake. However, it
had given me an introduction to an important
collector who had bought a lot of Michel Simon's
famous erotica collection at the 5 auctions at
Hotel Drouot.
I was thus invited to see his collection one
evening. Alain's claim to fame was that he had
married Marie Laforet in 1971, the famous singer
and actress and fathered their child. It seems
his ex wife had many husbands and today at 79
lives in Switzerland. I reckon Alain must be the
same age if he is still alive but I can only find
two references to him on Google.
He lived in a prestigious building which I think
he owned with his wife or was she his mistress
who had just produced a baby? Madame was not
pleased to meet me when I arrived in the flat.
There she was, writing out cookery recipes in the
kitchen totally disinterested in my presence.
Alain whisked me away upstairs to an interesting
intimate very traditional French burgundy bookish
apartment on the top floor where his collection
was housed. He showed me ethnic objects,
porcelain figures, books, prints and paintings by
famous artists. The top end of the market and
definitely not pornographic. The man was a
historian and knew his subject. He was also a
fine art collector and loved beautiful women on
and off the canvas! As he knew I was a specialist
in pre-cinema, the one thing that stands out all
those decades ago, was an erotic zoetrope band
that he spun for me in his zoetrope. Phalluses
galore viewed through the slats popping up and
down as the black drum spun round! A sight to
behold!!
After an educational couple of hours we ventured
down to Madame who was meant to feed me. I don't
recall they ate but all I was offered was a mere
salad, some bread and then a final goodbye ice
cream. The atmosphere in the kitchen was stilted
and I was starving. Did she suspect we had been
at it in his library? Not surprisingly
after that our paths would cross at La Vilette,
Chatou and La Bastille, the Paris brocante fairs
always hand in hand with a beautiful Swiss
fashion designer blonde woman called Claudia.
Their language was English and I distinctly heard
him call her an 'old cow' one afternoon!
Obviously they were a handsome fun loving couple
and I suppose he was estranged from the jealous
Madame who no doubt was a good cook but not the
night I was invited!
I don't recall ever selling anything to Alain as
he was the top end of the erotic market but I did
sell the fob to Elliot Baruch, the owner of the
prestigious Galerie Popoff Russian art gallery on
the Faubourg St Honore right opposite the Elysee
Palace, who happened to be the lover of my then
close friend American Carmen. That however is for
another vignette to be written.
Written
in the Hotel Marisa, Cordoba in May 2017 during
the Patio Festival in the rain.
References
Wikipedia - Marie Laforet
Wikipedia - Michel Simon - eccentric
Michelsimonscollection.e-monsieur.com
Hermitagemuseum.org
Google - Denis Ozanne
Seduced : Art and sex from Antiquity to Now -
Telegraph
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