Centrefold Venus of the Month 8: January - Destiny Davis

Destiny Davis from January 2005

Just a short posting for January's Centrefold, which we have just managed to squeeze in before the end of the month. An unusually modern one this time and really here not for the quality of the girl but rather the fact that she illustrates a couple of points (sadly her points look rather plastic).

Destiny is 5'5" tall and 36-24-34 and is studying economics and law in Las Vegas, although she was born in California. Agent Triple P, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, enjoys Las Vegas and has been there four times in the last few years.

We rather like this centrefold. Her pose is rather Forties (as his her figure) and we like the drained Martini glass dangling from her fingers. Agent Triple P has been known to partake of the odd Martini. In fact we had one on Friday at the Archduke, but it wasn't very good. Like traditional English Sunday roast lunches the best Martinis are the ones you make at home. Anyway, if we study the centrefold more closely (go on, force yourselves) there is also a full Martini glass at her feet which harks back to the Fifties Playboy centrefolds when there was often the suggestion of an unseen male (it is to be assumed!) presence. Either that or she's already lined up her next drink! Modern girls! Who can tell, eh?

Reasonably natural

The other point we wished to make was to demonstrate the pernicious effect of Playboy's Photoshopping. In the picture above the colours look reasonably natural. However, in the picture below we can see the typical current craze for making all their women look like they've been sprayed with gold paint, a la Goldfinger.

Covered in Ultraglow

In fact Destiny's figure reminds me somewhat of SA (although she was all natural), one of our particular friends from twenty years ago. She was very keen on a then popular cosmetic called Ultraglow which had a similar gold coating effect to this.

Then, as now, however, we prefer our women natural in colour and natural in figure construction.

Line Venuses by Mario Tauzin

Agent Triple P first became aware of the art of Mario Tauzin from Dr Phylis and Dr Eberhard Kronhausen's seminal work The Complete Book of Erotic Art; a celebration of the first official exhibition of erotic art held in Lund, Sweden, from May 3rd to July 31st 1968.

Very little is known about Tauzin other than that he was French and lived from 1910 until 1979.

The set of 30 erotic etchings he produced in the 1930's were the source of inspiration to the author Henri Breton, who wrote a series of short stories (published as The Devil's Whisper) inspired by them, which were set in Marseilles in the 1950s and 1960s.

It is appropriate that the Kronhausens chose a Japanese Shunga picture for their exhibition poster as Tauzin's art shows great influence from the Shunga masters and his approach to line is very similar to Hashiguchi's from a decade earlier, as well as some of Picasso's work in the twenties.

The Cigarette

Agent Triple P has also found pictures of a couple of paintings by Tauzin which, whilst very nice, are in no way a match for the sensuous and economical lines of his copper plate etchings.

Chien et chat

Japanese Venus: Woman after the bath by Goyo Hashiguchi

Woman after the bath (1920)

If there is one artist who has been more influential than any other on Agent Triple P's pen and ink figure work it is Goyo Hashiguchi (1880-1921). His restrained use of colour as a way to give his delicate line figures a solid presence on the paper are a model for subtle printmaking and demonstrate the extraordinary lengths he went to to produce the highest quality image.

Goyo (real name Hashiguchi Kiyoshi) was the son of a samurai from Kagoshima. His father taught him traditional Kano painting but eventually Goyo went to Tokyo where he studied Western art and graduated top of the class at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1905.

After graduating he was really more of a scholar than a practising artist although he did some book illustration. In 1911 he got his first big break: to design a ukiyo-e style poster for the Mitsukoshi department store.

Bathing (1915)

He came to the attention of publisher Watanabe Shozaburo who was looking for artists with European training to produce what he called shin hanga (new prints). These were modern prints but produced in a traditional style aimed at the valuable new Western market. Watanabe had also adoped the fairly new tradition from the west of limited edition numbered prints which could realise higher prices than the traditional non-limited edition. Watanbe realised that Goyo, with his Western style training, could be a valuable addition to his team. Goyo did produce one print, a masterpiece named Bathing (1915), for Watanabe but he was a perfectionist and felt that Watanabe's standard of printmaking wasn't high enough and never worked with him again. Also, having been trained in the Western method Goyo may have appreciated more independence than Watanabe's set up gave him; he was not the only artist to leave the publisher's stable.

Nevertheless, his experience with Watanabe had got him interested in printmaking and he went on to supervise the production of a 12 volume book of reproductions of classical Japanese ukiyo-e prints which increased his knowledge of the printmaking process. From 1918 until his death at the age of 41 he produced 13 more prints, mainly of women (bijing-a).

Woman at a hot spring hotel (1921)

Goyo suffered from ill health most of his life (he had beri beri) and died of meningitis. Nevertheless he managed to supervise his last print, Woman at a hot spring hotel (1921) from his death bed. His total output was only 14 prints ( four landscapes, one picture of ducks and nine of beautiful women) during his lifetime although after his death his brother and nephew worked to produce more prints from his sketches. As a result of his low output and small print runs (often less than 80 copies) his prints fetch fabulous sums these days.

Woman washing her face (1920)

Nudes had never really been a feature of Japanese art and even the most erotic Shunga art, produced by masters such as Utamaro or Hokusai (with the exception, which we will explore another time, of fisher girls), featured women who are invariably dressed. Goyo, however had learnt to draw from life and his pictures can be regarded as the first successful nudes in Japanese art; perfectly pulling together the European and classical Japanese traditions.

Woman washing her hair (1920)

In our final picture Goyo has sensuously depicted the woman's long hair; something that would only usually be seen by a member of her family, as hair was always worn up in several buns at this time. It adds an intimate and slightly voyeuristic quality to this beautifully composed print.

Venus with buck teeth: Pamela Saunders

All this talk of beavers on The Adventures of Triple P is very appropriate at present due to the presence on Agent Triple P's railway station platform every morning of the girl we know as "buck teeth babe". Triple P has allocated names for many of his regular fellow commuters: "Big Ugly", "Mr Public Sector Hair", "The Grumpy Frog", "Archaeology Girl", "Still Thinks He's Handsome", "Slutty The Goth Schoolgirl", "MJK Portly", "Too Old For Long Hair French Woman", "Baldy Porridge Slurper", "Miss Freckly Nose", "Snub Nose Blonde" etc.

"Buck teeth babe" has those large front teeth which mean she can't close her mouth in repose. These aren't Janet Street-Porter style beavers; just slightly big enough to keep her nice full lips permanently open so that she looks as if she wants to receive a kiss.

A Playboy Playmate who demonstrated this look perfectly was the lovely Pamela Saunders from November 1985.

Agent Triple P had a girlfriend once, VA, with a similar look (although she had a better bust than Pamela!) and we have never been able to resist the visible teeth with full lips combination.

Mwah! Scrummy!

Birthday Venus: Stella Stevens

Today is a rather significant birthday for Agent Triple P and so, to celebrate, here is Stella Stevens (or Estelle Caro Eggleston as she was born) from January 1960. We have to say that it's not one of Playboy's more imaginative poses and it doesn't give poor Stella any way to present her body in the most flattering way. However, at the time she was 5'5" and 37-22-36 and Agent Triple P thinks she looks rather fetching; especially given her rather good posterior.

Stella in The Ballad of Cable Hogue

Stella has had a long career as a, largely, B movie actress but Triple P remembers her best in Sam Peckinpah's The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) (Triple P remembers the excitement at school the next day after her bath time frolic had been shown on prime time TV), the first Matt Helm film The Silencers (1966) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972).

Spanish Venus: Penelope Cruz

Agent Triple P has no reason to post this picture (although it has taken ages to find this particular image) whatsoever other than it is our favourite film related image of the moment: Penelope Cruz in Nine (2009) where she plays a burlesque dancer.

Penelope stretches on stage in Nine

Hooray for Hollywood!

Snowy Venuses

It's snowy today in Agent Triple P's garden and several of our statues have been nearly buried! We think they look rather good!

Slovenian Venus: Alenka Bikar

Alenka from the front

A long time ago Agent Triple P was not a bad sprinter. OK at 100 metres and 200 meters but Southern Counties standard at 400m. As a result, even though we have largely become disillusioned with athletics due to the inability of the governing body to really root out illegal substances, we do still enjoy watching the sprints at the major Games. We are even contemplating attending the 2012 Olympic sprints in London.

Now we're talking

Attractive (to Agent Triple P anyway) women athletes are rare and are more likely to be found in events like pole vault, high jump and long jump (for some reason). However, a well toned body can (pace Agent DVD) make up for a slightly lower than average scoring face. If that body part is a posterior then we would argue that it can more than make up for it.

On your marks...

No-one demonstrates this more than Slovenian sprinter Alenka Bikar. She is pretty short for a sprinter at just 5'4". Now 34, she was born in Ljubljana, a city Triple P has visited several times and one where he can vouch for the attractiveness of the women. Not quite World class (unlike, say, Agent Triple P's favourite Merlene Ottey) nevertheless between 1997 and 2005 she got some pretty good results: Silver for the 200m at the European Indoor Championship in 2000, 6th in the Indoor and Outdoor World Championships the following year and, her only international title, gold in the 200 at the 2005 Mediterranean Games.

But it is Alenka's posterior rather than her sporting achievements whch we celebrate today. Quite simply she has one of the best rears we have ever seen in track and field.

Alenka Wiggles

This did not go unnoticed by bored stadium cameramen; as the above clip delightfully demonstrates.

So we wish Alenka a happy birthday for this Thursday and may she wiggle for many years.

Most popular items December

Coming this month: the latest episode of the Pubic Wars.

Here are the most popular searched items for December (November's figures in brackets).

1 (2) Pubic Wars. Two episodes in two months has boosted the figures. Another coming this month.
2 (1) Louann Fernald. Most popular girl n the site for second month running
3 (3) Elizabeth Ann Roberts. Playmate classmate still on the podium.
4 (5) Sue and Louise Elvin. I have discovered I don't have this issue of Penthouse. Must remedy that.
5 (4) Hyapatia Lee. Still in the top five.

6 (10) Melodye Prentiss. Good climb for Melodye.

7 (6) Lani Todd. Comparatively modern playmate still popular.

8 (9) Gloria Root. Another sixties centrefold.

9 (7) Veronika Zemanova. Busty Czech slowly deflating.

10 (8) Jennifer Lewis. First drop for Jennifer.
11 (-) Stephanie McLean. Straight in at 11 for first pubic Pet.

12 (18) Marie-Louise O'Murphy. Louis XIV's mistress floats up.

13 (11) Evelyn Treacher. First US Penthouse Pet holds her position.

14 (-) Ola Jordan. New entry for bouncy Polish dancer.

15 (-) Amber Ramsay. First appearance for the balletic and excited Miss Ramsay.
16 (-) Lenna Sjööblom. Another first appearance for the "First Lady of the Internet".
17 (-) Victoria Pendleton. A record fifth firsst appearance for Olympic cycling babe.

18 (-) Myrna Weber. Yet another new entry for Playboy girl from 1958.

19 (-) Suzanne Saxon. Another Pet. Another new entry.

20 (-) Yvonne Ekman. Former Danish beauty queen has final new entry.

Whilst there is not much change in the top 10 it's another story in the second half of our chart with no less than eight new entries. Ola and Victoria are rare non-nude model entries.

Not quite making it this month but all on the same score were Pet Avril lund and Playmates Liv, Lindeland, Laura Misch and Crystal Smith.

Hits on art and artists are up but most just missed the top twenty so here are our top ten artistic searches:

1 Marie-Louise O'Murphy. Only one to make the overall top 20.

2 John Collier. Lady Godiva.

3. Flaming June. Lord Leighton

4.David Wright. British pin-up artist.

5. Lady Godiva. Generally, rather than any particular artwork.

6. Ariadne asleep on the Island of Naxos. John Vanderlyn. Good score for American painting.

7. September Morn. Chabas' controversial nude.

8. Modigliani. We need to post more of his paintings.

9. Nude in White Stockings. One of Courbet's racier pictures.

10. Fürdő nő. Károly Lotz. One of our favourite nineteenth century nudes.