Advertising card-filled metal shell token. Diameter 22mm. AUX BELLES POULES around and above 32 RUE BLONDEL in three lines in centre. Rev. PIECE DE PUBLICITÉ Cock strutting left. Strong Good VF*
The image is an unretouched photo of the actual token offered for sale.
There are several varieties of this token,
Wikipedia and other sources say that Aux Belles Poules, a ‘maison close’ (brothel), was built around 1904 in the Art deco style.
Its rooms, public and private, were decorated with large mirrors and numerous erotic mosaic murals.
Another attraction of the establishment was that the ‘beautiful chicks’, contemporary slang for the ladies employed there staged shows in which they demonstrated astounding labial dexterity, which included the picking up tokens such as one the illustrated above, from the corner of a table and ‘swallowing’ them. Others of them, by exercising the muscles of the pelvic floor could even ‘smoke’ cigarettes, puffing smoke in and out of their vulva.
The public rooms were famous for erotic tableaux vivants, in which historical and legendary scenes were portrayed by women, some of whom were equipped with large strap-on dildos.
The establishment was an attraction for fashionable well-to-do couples from Paris as well as national and foreign tourists, including British and American visitors who numbered among them Henry Miller, accompanied by Anaïs Nin, author of ‘The Life of Q’.
During WW2 Aux Belles Poules and several other Parisian brothels, were requisitioned for the sole use of German officers, largely to prevent fraternisation between German troops and the local population. The Wehrmacht was responsible for organizing the sanitary control of these establishments. Captain Haucke, commissioner of Geheime Feldpolizei, was responsible for managing prostitution in Paris.
After the war ended, in 1946 Aux Belles Poules, as other Parisian brothels, was closed by new anti-prostitution laws. The building was then converted into accommodation for students. However, in 1996, the building in Rue Blondel was declared a ‘Historic Monument’ because unlike other establishments of the same era, the interior of the building had been preserved, with the erotic mosaics and enormous mirrors still extant.
It can be visited and is currently used as a restaurant, and a venue for events such as readings of saucy plays and burlesque shows. It can also be hired as a film set.
The contents of this website including images are Copyright 2020 Galata - All Rights Reserved.