I Don't Want a Cookie, Mom, Can I Just See the Box?

Fri Apr 16, 9:38 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!



LONDON (Reuters) - It looks like an ordinary old-fashioned cookie tin, but the hidden drawing of two dogs having sex in the grass makes it an instant collectors' item.


Reuters Photo



Biscuit makers Huntley & Palmers sold thousands of tins of treats featuring a copy of an early 20th century illustration of a genteel picnic -- without realizing that a disgruntled employee had hidden sexually explicit drawings in the scene.


Lawrences Auctioneers in Somerset, southwest England, is hoping collectors will bid 250 pounds ($446) when one of the tins goes on sale next Friday.


The unidentified artist who copied the illustration had lost his job at the cookie company and decided to take revenge on his employers while completing his final project.


He included a small picture of two dogs having sex and another of a pair of naked lovers. An obscene label written on a jam jar suggests it contains something other than jam.


"A grocer on a slow day in his shop spotted the added characters in 1980 and the company was quite embarrassed. But now it's very popular and they are collectors' items," said a spokesman for Reading Museum in England, where another of the tins is on display.