La Rossa Italian House of Tolerance Tariff Sign, 1930s

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Printed advertising/tariff panel in metal frame. An unusual Italian brothel tariff sign for “La Rossa,” described at the top as … Read more Printed advertising/tariff panel in metal frame. An unusual Italian brothel tariff sign for “La Rossa,” described at the top as a “Rinomata Casa di Tolleranza dall’anno 1922” (“renowned house of tolerance since 1922”). The design is centred by an oval photographic portrait of an elegantly posed woman, flanked by roses, with heraldic shields surmounted by eagles in the upper corners. The lower portion displays the establishment's tariff in large typography: Lire 2 for a “semplice” encounter, with an additional Lire 5 for each quarter-hour spent in the room (“per ogni quarto d’ora in camera”). An inscription along the bottom instructs clients: “Dopo l’incontro si paga alla Madama Nilde” (“After the encounter, payment is made to Madame Nilde”). The combination of commercial typography, erotic imagery and explicit pricing evokes the regulated Italian case di tolleranza, or licensed brothels, which formed a distinctive part of Italian urban social history before their legal abolition in 1958. General surface wear and staining; scattered marks and minor losses, particularly at the margins and corners; pronounced oxidation and streaking to the reverse; metal frame with age-related wear. Overall imagery and inscriptions remain clear and legible. See less