Unidentified photographer / artist
1877, 3 August
Charge of Selling Indecent Photographs

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The British Journal of Photography, Volume XXIV, No.900, August 3, 1877, p.371.
 
Charge of Selling Indecent Photographs. At Worship-street Police Court, on Wednesday last, the 1st inst., Martha Abrams, 55, and Peretz Abrams, her son, 15 years of age, were charged before Mr. Barstow with selling indecent prints and having indecent prints in their possession. It appeared from the evidence of detective-serjeant Tew and detective Vincent, H Division, that on the previous night the prisoners were in the City-road with a stall, on which were spread a number of photographs, cartes-de-visite, &c., for sale. Some information had been previously given to the officers that the prisoners offered privately the photographs to men. The officers made one or two purchases, and then asked the boy if he had anything else to show them, and he, going to a corner of the stall, beckoned them to him, and then produced a quantity of obscene prints, and sold them to the officers at 2d. Each. The boy and woman were then taken into custody. The magistrate examined the photographs, of which a great number were produced by the officers. There were certain productions of a French character, principally caricatures, but the majority of the photographs were copies of well-known works of art Leda and the Swan, Perseus and Andromeda, The Greek Slave, &c. Mr. Barstow was of opinion that the works were indecent within the meaning of the Act, and ordered them to be destroyed. He fined the woman forty shillings, or one month, and discharged the boy, believing that he had acted under his parent's direction.
 
LL/35783