To some, pictures like this may be the epitome of bad taste, but to fashion magnate Wayne Hemingway, they are objets d'art.

Wayne loves these garish etchings so much he has dedicated a whole book to them - and he reckons others must share his passion, because he says it is racing off the shelves.

He may be the director of one of Britain's hottest labels, Red Or Dead, but Wayne admits he loves "a bit of cheese".

The designer and former Big Breakfast presenter, who lives near Chichester, grew up gazing at the bad-taste art adorning the wall above his grandmother's mantelpiece.

His favourite pictures were of dusky maidens painted in exotic jungle scenes, or of big-eyed children and dogs staring mournfully out from the canvas.

Wayne now has more than 600 prints of what he calls mass market masterpieces.

He has become something of an expert on the subject after ten years of studying it at car boot sales and junk shops around Sussex.

He said: "Most people dismiss this stuff as working class art, as if it isn't worth anything. This book is not laughing at the paintings, it's giving them the place they deserve in popular culture.

"To the majority of people, this is what art is all about. It means more to them than Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin. They aren't wrong to like it. It's something to be proud of."

But Wayne admits he does not display these pictures above his own mantelpiece.

He said: "I wouldn't put them on my living room wall, no. But I like what they stand for. I like the fact they make people happy and it means something to them."

One of his favourite artists is Dallas Simpson, who painted more than 70 pictures from her caravan in Worthing between 1965 and 1970. Her speciality was painting big-eyed urchins.

Just Above The Mantelpiece: Mass Market Masterpieces is published by Booth-Clibborn Editions, priced £35.00.