Anyone who knows anything about Andy Warhol will know that before POP he was a successful commercial illustrator. Throughout the 1950s he worked for advertising agencies, record labels and publishers.

As a massive Warhol fan without the budget to own an actual Warhol, I started collecting some of his commercial work, including the handful of books he designed covers for – all of which are displayed in this gallery.

Most are completely obscure and long-forgotten. Some – such as Baron Corvo’s The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole – even have a gay theme. But they all have Andy in common and are now extremely collectable.

I love them all but I particularly cherish Pistols for Two. It was published in 1951, when Warhol was only 23 years old and had only been in New York for 2 years.

No official catalogue exists of this small but perfectly formed collection and so I am terribly excited to share it with Polari! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.