The High Price of Erotica

A biscuit tin produced in Liverpool in the 1970s sold at auction for 119 pounds this week. [h/t to BrianF for the pointer]. And the reason had nothing to do with the Fabulous Four.

The Huntley and Palmer [no relation] tin, made in the 1970s at the company's Liverpool factory, appears on first glance to show an idyllic lunchtime scene.

On closer inspection, the illusion of tranquillity is shattered by drawings in the background of a naked couple.

These are said to have been added by a designer who had just been sacked.

...Amid the scenes of ladies and children lunching around a table at a Manor House, are said to be those of a man and woman locked in an amorous embrace in a flower bed.

The tin also depicts two dogs mating behind a tree and a jam jar decorated with an obscene label.

I wonder whether these scenes had a subliminal seduction effect that boosted sales of the tins before people consciously knew about the scenes.