Lambretta: An eBay Buyer s Guide Spring 2019

In the early 1980s, Scott King fell in love with the gleaming hordes of Lambrettas that would pass through his hometown of Goole, East Yorkshire en-route to scooter rallies in Skegness and Scarborough. King bought his first Lambretta aged fourteen and has been passionate about them ever since. Having not owned a scooter for almost ten years, King now spends many hours poring over eBay UK assessing the merits of Lambrettas that he will never buy. King’s latest book is a genuine – if highly subjective and non-professional – buyer’s guide that wryly illustrates some of the nuances and eccentricities at the heart of Lambretta ownership. King describes this book as «the reciprocal for a lifetime’s accumulation of useless knowledge… expressed in a quasi-impenetrable language». The book could also be read, not only as an indulgence of King’s nerdish love of Lambrettas, but as a unique take on the inherently self-indulgent nature of the ‘artist’s book’ as a form. Scott King has produced several books including: Anxiety & Depression (2009), Art Works (2010), Anish and Antony Take Afghanistan (2014) – all published with JRP-Editions; as well as, Public Art (2016) and, Britlins (2017), both published with Slimvolume. King’s work has been exhibited internationally in both commercial galleries and institutions; his most recent work, 77 Barton Street – a full-scale wax rubbing of the facade of former Joy Division singer Ian Curtis’ home in Macclesfield, England – is currently on display as part of, Hyper! A Journey in Art and Music at Deichtorhallen, Hamburg.