Royale Sailors Remembered

 This image from 'Shanghai'd Sailor' was jokily adapted by Sir Gee magazine No 17, some time after Royale's demise (ca 1966). There were several other Royale pictures in this and other issues that nostalgically revisited Clavering's work, fondly poking fun at the contrived eroticism.

Publication of the  'Shanghai'd Sailor' continues progressively at the Gallery.

Image from Sir Gee No 17 courtesy of Tim in Vermont 

Shanghai'd Sailor set arrives at the Royale blog

Satty - Shanghai City

 The next set to be posted at the Royale Studio blog is Shanghai'd Sailor which seems to have been a direct inspiration for Etienne/Stephen's well known story 'Sailor Beware'. 

You can follow progress via the link above.

Shanghaiing sounds like some wicked, Oriental practice, but in fact it was widely employed by British and American Sea Captains to crew their vessels, by abducting men from waterfronts and forcing them to work on their ships. A civilian equivalent of the Royal Navy 'Press Gang'. 

The image above (attributed to 'Satty') shows a group of  kidnapped men being rowed to their new home and workplace under the direction of a Dickensian overseer. Their muscular, black oarsman seems to be providing a demonstration of their new working conditions as he reels back from a whip lash. A nice ship mate to have with you though! The picture itself seems to be a montage of different images rather than an original drawing.

According to some sources the reference to Shanghai was because it was the destination of many of the ships, but it seems more likely that it was simply a colourful example of a foreign place miles from home where the language and customs were so completely alien that abductee, should he escape or be dumped there, would be in a dire predicament.

Incidentally, Sailor Beware! was also a 1950's British stage play and film about a sailor who has doubts about his forthcoming marriage, thanks to his domineering, future mother-in-law. There's no gay subtext or enslavement angle beyond the traditional jokes about marriage, but the catchy title passed readily into British, camp, gay usage for obvious reasons. Basil Clavering didn't use it for his piece and I don't know what made Etienne settle on it for his American story.

Sale of Royale Photos

Chris Rafael by Hussar

Last year (Aug 2023) there was an auction of 29 Hussar Studio images by Swann Galleries in the US. Most of the the items were solo posed images like the one above of Chris Rafael. This relatively unknown Royale model also featured in the Colville coloured collection of 2016 with a sword pose taken from the same set.

Colville priced this photo at A$ 3,500 (about £1,900)

The Swann catalogue also includes a photo strip featuring Rafael wrestling with two other men.

It's not entirely obvious that these three images are from the same set (or playlet as Hussar Studio called them). However, these same three pictures were also featured in a photo spread in a magazine called 'Teenage Muscles', ca 1961 which suggests that they are indeed part of a single set. I know it from other sources as 'Wrestling Greeks*' (article pending). The Swann collection (link below) also includes solo images of the models. It's possible that it may have been supplied by Hussar to promote that set.

*I have found Chris Rafael variously described as Pakistani, Spanish and (apparently) here as Greek!

~

The 29 images in the Swann collection fetched US $2,750 (about £2,200).

That's about $95 or £76 each.

Basil Clavering would be amazed!

View the Swann Auction Catalogue