These are extremely rare and unusual; first batch of them like this I have ever seen!
The Dartells, 5/3/63, Corte Madera Rec. Center, Corte Madera (Marin County), California; classic 14" x 22" boxing style poster printed by Tilghman Press, Oakland on poster board; click here for illustration. The Dartells were a Southern California instrumental/surf group that had one big hit, "Hot Pastrami," prominently featured on this poster. Rare early surf/rock poster, condition an amazing NM-; no pinholes, slight browning in the paper and minor pressure ding in lower LH corner. A great and extremely rare item for collectors of pre-psychedelic stuff. $695.
The Dartells, 6/7/63, Corte Madera Rec. Center, Corte Madera (Marin County), California; another classic 16" x 24" boxing style poster printed by Tilghman Press, Oakland on poster board; click here for illustration. See description above for info on the Dartells. Another very rare poster; probably no more than a couple of these exist. Condition VG+; clean with some typical paper age; small piece of RH corner missing, but otherwise very clean. Asking $600 for this one.
Country Joe & the Fish, Steve Miller Blues Band, S.F. Mime Troupe, Robert Baker, 2/19/67, California Hall; "Port Chicago Vigil" poster by Stanley Mouse in red and blue on white background with typical early Mouse lettering and center image of nude woman, for illustration, see The Art of Rock, pl. 2.137; VG/VG+ overall; couple pinholes in corners and upper center, 1 small chunk missing in upper LH margin outside image. Image bright and colors strong, $375.
Country Joe & the Fish; Big Brother & the Holding Co., The Candy Store, 5/12-13/67, California Hall; yellow background with pink and black bat-like wings, white lettering; art by Pyxis Studios. Similar to the other Ramlala/Green Joynt posters illustrated in The Art of Rock, pretty decent art; VG+ (1 set of staple holes in each corner; otherwise very clean, $40.
Mt. Rushmore, Mystery Trend, Anonymous Artists of America, 6/16-18/67, California Hall, SF; light and dark purple, and silver image with sort of Indian-hippie theme; much like the others in the Ramlala/Green Joynt series. Nice NM copy, $45.00.
Grateful Dead, Transatlantic RR, 10/15/1966, Sausalito Heliport, Marin County, CA; 14" x 22.5" fairly crude blue lettering on thin white paper with a yin-yang image in the center and "Valerie Ann's" presenta at the top. This is a rather well-known early Dead poster that has always commanded a high premium. This one has undergone fairly extensive restoration with some rips, torn portions, and reverse side tape pulls being carefully fixed. The result is impressive; the colors are bold, paper bright, and the poster shows extremely well--I'd even say NM-/VG+ aside from the restoration (which of course you can see if you look carefully, but the overall appearance is really nice). Priced very fairly at $1,500.
Young Rascals, Country Joe & the Fish, Sons of Champlin, Sparrow (pre-Steppenwolf), "Special Guests"; 6/28/67, Oakland Coliseum. Presented by Bill Quarry. 17 x 22.5"l turquoise-green with red accents on yellow paper stock. Nice well-executed flower-power type art that is kind of a cross between Wes Wilson's early style and the style of the artist Gut, if you are familiar with him. Hand drawn swirling lettering with floral accents; well done. Artist is one Don Ryder. An interesting sidelight is that the "Special Guests" turned out to be the Grateful Dead; they apparently were added at the last minute and though their names do not appear on the poster or handbill for the event, they do appear, with full photo credit, in the show program. The handbill for this event is fairly common, but the full sized poster, offered here, is a good deal harder to find. This copy grades VG+ overall; some minor storage wrinkles and margin dings, including a 1/2" tear at the lower RH side, but it is basically a fine copy of this poster and the defects wouldn't bother most collectors. Asking $225.
Steve Miller Band, Kaleidoscope, The Youngbloods, 5/10-12/68, Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco; art by Kelley has sort of an American flag motif with a center image of a woman staring at an hourglass, surrounded by the stars of the flag, with the stripes at the right. Classic Kelley design that for some reason has managed to escape illustration in all the poster books so far, as far as I know. This is the large, double size version, 22" x 28"; also comes in mid size and card size but the big one is by far the hardest to find. VG+ copy; minor pinholes and general age spots, basically a decent copy of this attractive poster, $195.
Jefferson Airplane, Pete Seeger, Sam Hinton, Greenbriar Boys, John Fahey, Phil Ochs, Malvina Reynolds, Ralph J. Gleason, numerous others, 6/30-7/4/66, University of California, Berkeley; Berkeley Folk Music Festival; 14" x 22" horizontal poster with black background and photos of an old fiddler on one side and a singer with an electric guitar on the other, apparently symbolizing the old and new folk music, with typeset lettering in between. Scarce early Airplane poster with interesting lineup. Condition is VG-; has a 3/4" or so chunk missing from LH corner margin, a smaller stapple tear at the top RH margin (was probably torn from a telephone pole ages ago), and general overall age; still an acceptable collection copy of this neat and hard-to-find item, asking $225.
Grateful Dead, 5/3/74, Portland Coliseum, Portland, OR. Canceled concert, very nice Pacific Presentations poster, red background and lettering with blue tour photo of the Dead in the center; similar to other Pacific Presentations posters of the period, but a very nice combination of colors; for illustration of the image, click here. Difficult poster to find because concert was canceled and posters never extensively distributed. Nice NM-/VG+ copy with untrimmed margins, clean and attractive. NM $600.
Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, 5/5/1974, PNE Coliseum, Vancouver, BC. Canceled concert; very nice Pacific Presentations poster; red background and lettering with blue tour photo of the Dead in the center; similar to other Pacific Presentations posters of the period, but a very nice combination of colors; for illustration of the image, click here. This is a very hard poster to find for this canceled date, VG+ with teeny staple holes in corners in the white border area; almost invisible; basically a NM poster; $600.
Grateful Dead, 7/19/1974, Selland Arena, Fresno, CA; nice Pacific Presentations poster, approximately 12" x 21.25"; black and white with standard '74 tour poster shot of the band including Keith Godchaux; for illustration of the image, click here. Condition: 2 copies; 1 NM/NM-; $330; second I would have to grade it NM-/VG+; basically a NM- poster but with some storage wrinkles in the bottom margin, most prominently in the LH corner, these show up to some extent in the illustration. An uncommon poster, as are many of these early 70's Pacific Presentation posters, $300. (*)
P.H. Phactor Jugband, 7/15-24/66, Cedar Alley Coffee House, North Beach, San Francisco; nice 13" x 20.5" poster iwth brown lettering on goldenrod stock, nice lettering and cross-hatched drawing of leaves and flowers in the back; very minor pinholes, strong VG+ $25.00.
Morning Glory, Indian Head Band, 10/13-14/67, Western Front, San Francisco; nice orange and blue poster by John Thompson with deign of Indian and naked woman with children in a psychedelic field; for illustration, see The Art of Rock, pl. 1.199. 2 NM copies, $50 each. (*)
Junior Wells, Steve Mann, 1227/66-1/8/67. Matrix, San Francisco (Neon Rose #1), fantastic early Victor Moscoso design with orange design, blue op-art style letters and a bright green reverse-image photo of Jr. Wells; one of my favorite Moscoso posters, this is a second printing per Eric King (small white mark in the upper RH blue border--easy to tell if you know where to look for it), nice NM/NM- copy, $65.
Spooky Tooth, David Blue, Cleveland Wrecking Co., Seatrain, 9/17-28 (multiple shows), Matrix, San Francisco; large 17" x 23" B & W, printed by Bindweed Press with comic strip style that shows a definite Rick Griffin influence; for illustration, see The Art of Rock, pl. 2.119. Hard poster to find; I've seen very few of these over the years and to the best of my recollection, this is the first time I've ever offered one for sale. Condition VG+/VG; clean overall with some pinholes, light margin wrinkles and a spot of general age, not bad overall. $200.
Palace of Fine Arts Festival, 8/30-9/2/68, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco (benefit for Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic and The Athaneum Arts Foundation. This was one of those big S.F. events where everybody who was anybody played. The poster is 13.5" x 24" and is printed on silver foil paper with a collage of various images of the classical columns at the Palace of Fine Arts. Unfortunately, the bands and other performers are not listed on the poster, but they printed separate handbills for each day of the show and these handbills do list the performers who include Grateful Dead, Big Brother, Quicksilver, Santana, Steve Miller, Kaleidoscope, and the Sons of Champlin, to name only a few. Three of the 4 individual handbills are illustrated in The Art of Rock, pl. 2.237, 2.238, and 2.239. The background of those handbills is the same as the image on the poster, minus the foil paper of course. I have 1 coy of the poster available, basically NM- except that it has a 1" x .5" chunk missing in the upper RH margin, so have to downgrade it a bit for that. Asking $75; great event item.
Love, Mad River, Zephyr, 2/28-3/2/69, Avalon Balloom, Sound Proof productions show with odd design featuring a blue background, smiling son, what looks like a cloud, and a lightning bolt, with a photo of some women with hats at the very bottom;for illustration, see The Art of Rock, pl. 2.28. Very nice NM copy, $125.
Love, P. J. Proby, Moby Grape, Young Giants, Carousels, 5/19-20/67 (I think...could be possibly '66), Winterland, S.F.; 13.5" x 19"; primarily orange and green and a little bit of yellow with weird image of woman sort of like a woodblock cut print. Psychedelic but a bit crude. VG+.; no pinholes; minor hard to see tape residue in upper corners. Very nice NM copy, $100.
"Super Ball," [No performers listed], 4/3/68, Winterland, San Francisco; KMPX "first birthday benefit," yellow background with red and pink design by San Andreas Fault featuring photo of tangled nude figures. Note that although no groups were listed, the performers included the Grateful Dead and others and the show is listed in Deadbase as a Grateful Dead concert. VG+; pinholes and minor margin tear in upper border; image clean; $55.00.
Baltimore Steampacket, Freudian Slips, 2/2-5/67, The Ark, Sausalito; orange background with odd purple design and bright yellow lettering; 14" x 18", VG+ (pinholes), $60.
Baltimore Steampacket, Mobus Band, Hobbits, Grand Battle of the Marin Gands, 3/15-24/67 (various gigs), the Ark, Sausalito, this one is neater than most Ark posters of the period; 14" x 22" blue gray backing; a dull red elongated human figure with outstretched hands divides the poster into four irregularly sized parts, each of which contains a portion of the lettering that is sort of in the Wes Wilson style; not bad. Condition VG-; 1/2" chunk missing in lower RH corner; pinholes and a couple of pieces of removeable tape at the top; water stain in right part of image from margin; some discoloration and age in the image, worn but still OK overall, $50.
Sir Douglas Quintet, Overbrook Express, 5/13-14/67, The Ark, Sausalito, CA; interesting poster with nice purple-to-orange split fountain lettering around a cartoonish design of a steamboat, with a faint map of Sausalito in the background. Decent Ark poster, better than most of them, very nice NM copy, $70.
Incredible String Band, Doug Kershaw, Joy of Cooking, 11/13-14/69, Pepperland, San Rafael, CA; low contrast blue & green background with night seen and yellow moon and lettering. Nice art; VG/VG+ copy, a bit of overall light wear and general age, decent copy of this poster, $45.
Leon Russell, Captain Beefheart, Clover, 11/27-28/70, Pepperland, San Rafael, CA; 9.5 x 17.5" B & W poster on thin paper with great image of Leon Russell against a starry sky...VG+ copy; 1/2" diagonal; wrinkle in upper RH corner that has resulted in slight loss of ink at that spot; faint water spot in background by Leon's face; otherwise clean, $75. Also have second copy, basically about VG or so but has some tape in corners that probably can't be removed without damaging the poster, and a 3/4" tape pull in the LH margin; sounds better than it looks; bargain basement price $25. (*)
Chuck Berry, Sir Douglas Quintet, Boz Scaggs, 12/18-19/69, Pepperland, San Rafael, CA; very nice poster with dark blue background, orange sun-face in center with black rays, and lettering in white. VG-; wrinkles, folds, one large white spot in the blue, and a fair amount of general age, but no pinholes. Not awful, but definitely far from perfect. A filler copy. $25.
The Sons, Big Brother & the Holding Co., Clover, 2/20-21/71, Pepperland, San Rafael, CA, nice 12.75" x 18" poster by Mark Behrens, similar in some respects to David Singer's style, orange border and lettering with centeral image of smiling girl's face; and a khaki-green background; condition VG; no pinholes, couple of minor brown age spots in margins; horizontal crease across margin at very top, outside image. Overall a clean and decent copy, $45.
Flamin' Groovies, Loose Gravel (ex-Charlatans), Dirty Movies, 6/26/71, Project Artaud, San Francisco; interesting poster printed on silver foil background, with red image of highway with dotted lines receding into the distance, and a huge red sun with the lettering in the center. Because of the foil printing, the red tends to scuff and the foil itself tends to pick up scuffs and dings over time. 1 copy left which I'm going to grade NM-/VG+; no pinholes but does show a modest amount of the type of storage wear previously described. Asking $45.
Elvin Bishop Band, Cold Blood, Clover, 2/7/73, Pepperland, San Rafael; large purple poster with yellow-green split fountain script lettering; for illustration, see The Art of Rock, pl. 4.89. Nice strong VG+ copy, clean and bright colors; minor pinholes $45.
Yogi Phlegm (formerly the Sons of Champlin), Cottonmouth, Grimey Devine, 11/6-7/71, Solano County Fairgrounds, Vallejo; 10 x 15 B & W poster hand lettering, image of mountains in background with birds; fairly nondescript but an unusual Sons poster; first I've seen. Nice NM copy $75.
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Charlie Musselwhite, Sonoma Mtn. Road, 6/25-26/71, Friends and Relations Hall (Old Family Dog), Great Highway, San Francisco; large 17.5" x 23" pink and white poster on thin stock with a design that defies description; there is a large frog head in the center, lily pads or something at the top, lots of psychedelic lines and lettering, a little crude but decent art, strong VG+ no pinholes, but cracking along the outer margin of one edge due to careless storage--image unaffected. $60.
Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, 6/22/1972, Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, CA; 10 x 16.25" dark purple on thin pale slate blue stock; shows Kristofferson's face in right diagonal portion of image, with reversed typeset lettering dividing image in half and typeset ticket info at bottom. Small lettering at bottom advertises upcoming Commander Cody / Dan Hicks show. VG+; staple holes in corners and one minor staple tear in upper LH corner. $25.
Hoghead Cheese, California Republic, lights by Holy Magma; 4/5/??, Oroville Auditorium; well, here's a totally obscure poster; approx. 17" x 22.5"; crude black line artwork with a pink background on thin white stock; crudely drawn faces, swirly lines, looks like a high school student's doodling of something; I have never heard of either of these bands or seen them on any other posters, so this must have been extremely local, no way to tell the year for certain but the artwork definitely has a late 1960s feel; this qualifies as the oddest poster I've seen in awhile; have 3 NM copies of this one, $40 each. (*)
David Best Ceramics Show, 6/5-7/1/73, University of Santa Clara, poster by Stanley Mouse with parody of Time Magazine Cover featuring photo of UFO in center and caption "Martians Land to See Best Show." Cool item and essential for collectors of Stanley Mouse's work. NM $35. (*)
Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead), "Rolling Thunder" LP, 1971; beautiful large promotional piece by Kelley/Mouse; upper portion of the poster features a full color reproduction of the excellent cover art; bottom lists the artists who contributed their services to the LP, including Jerry Garcia, John Cipollina, and many others. These are record store promos and were machine folded in sixths for distribution; other than the folds, they are in prefect NM condition. Have several copies available; $25 each; a bargain for a cool item like this. (*)
Berkeley Jazz Symposium featuring Michael White Quartet, Barbara Davis sings Ma Rainey, Inter-Galactic Music Family, Morris Atcheson Unit, 7/9-10/71, Newman Hall, Berkeley; 11 x 17 B & W poster on thin stock, with white typeset lettering over B & W photo of Michael White. VG+; clean with a hint of overall age. $40.
Randy Newman, 8/4-5/72, Palace Theatre, S.F.; black and white on glossy stock, featuring crude-artsy drawing of what looks like 2 nude women embracing or doing something; Warner Bros logo. This is the only poster for a live Randy Newman show I've ever seen; had a lesser copy awhile back and sold it quickly. This one is a beautiful NM copy $60.
Blue Gravy with Nick Gravenites, Count Talent (Mike Bloomfield), 1/19/73, The Village (Columbus Ave.) , San Francisco; 8.5" x 14", black on yellow card stock; nice design by local artist Gilbert Johnson with drawing of woman holding some kind of alchemist's sign, 2 NM copies $17 each; obscure Mike Bloomfield item. For illustration of the image, click here. (*)
Elvin Bishop Band, Clover (early HUEY LEWIS), 3/31/73, Humboldt State College Gym, Arcata, CA, 11 x 14 black on goldenrod stock; nice drawn lettering, no art. two horizontal folds (possibly machine folded for distribution), otherwise clean, no pinholes. 2 copies $15 each; nice early Huey Lewis-related item. (*)
Sons of Champlin, Mike Bloomfield with Nick Gravenites, Roger Troy & Co., 4/5/75, College of Marin Gym, Marin County, CA; 11 x 17 black typeset lettering on thin blue stock; no art; local marin show; VG; no pinholds, but has a horiz. fold and some wrinkles, $12.50.
Boz Scaggs, Jesse Colin Young, Peter Frampton, Kingfish with Bob Weir, 6/15/75, Calaveras County Fairgrounds, Angels Camp, CA; Second Annual Mountain Aire festival; very nice poster by Roger Shepherd; full color with mountain scene; early poster for this event that ultimately was held annually for more than 10 years; 1 NM copy left, nice unusual item for Grateful Dead collectors as it features the original incarnation of Kingfish; $75 each. For illustration of the image, click here. (*)
Hot Tuna, Elvin Bishop, Commander Cody, 3/10/73, Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, nice poster with clean, modern lines obviously influenced by David Singer; silver-gray background with very large image of a ring with a blue stone in the center, black lightning-bolt type lettering; attractive poster with, once again, an obvious David Singer influence. NM- $70.
"Looking for Your Long Lost Mind Review," 5/19-20/75 (I think...could be a year or so on either side), Stanley Mouse airbrush poster, B & W with heart in the center airbrushed over a Milky Way background and letters that look like skywriting. Interesting idea, but the B & W printing sort of takes the punch out of the image. NM $15 (*)
Alice Stuart, 1975 calendar poster, 15" x 22" poster on thin paper featuring photo of this S.F. blues singer with her name across the top and a 1975 calendar across the bottom; 3 copies NM/NM- $10 each. (*)
Harry the Hipster, date unknown but definitely belongs with the '60's stuff-- generic tour poster for this Beat-Hip guy who was famous, more or less, for his rendition "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Miller's Ovaltine" Orange cardboard stock with graphics imitative of old n "Wanted" poster with photo of Harry looking pretty out of it. Space at side for location of gig to be filled in. Several copies available, NM $18 each; includes $3 extra shipping charge since this can't be sent rolled. Beyond cool, beyond anything...confuse your friends and enemies alike. Like a dead cat, this poster is truly a gift beyond price. (*)
Sunday Ramparts, circa1967, Stanley Mouse poster with red background and image of brown dragon curling around lettering saying "Sunday Ramparts." Very attractive poster, this copy is VG with a bit of overall paper age, slight browning of paper, and pinholes in white corner margins, very small 1/2" corner chunk missing in upper RH corner (white margin, out of image). Asking $45.
Warren Hinckle, "Free at Last," 1985 (technically, this should go on the Recent Posters page, but I'm putting it here instead....). This is a very rare cardboard newsstand poster, the kind that fits into a newspaper rack to sell papers. Size 13.5" x 21." Hinckle was a well-known left-wing Bay Area political commentator who had lots of trouble with the law over the years. For awhile in the 1980s he had a twice-weekly column in the S.F. Examiner newspaper and this poster was created to help sell newspapers by publicizing the column. What makes this poster particularly interesting is the fact that it contains a great drawing by R. Crumb of Hinckle (and his dog) being dragged away by three beefy S.F. cops, with a drawing of the city in the background. A very well executed Crumb image in the classic style. At the top of the poster in red ink it says "Hinckle. Free at last" and at the bottom, "Tues & Thurs, only in the Examiner." For an image of this neat item, click here.NM-; slight paper age. $175 each.
Neon Rose #15, Haight-Ashbury Clean in, 1967, 14 x 21 classic Moscoso image with full color lettering, paisley, bright colors, like a typical Family Dog Moscoso poster of the same vintage; beautiful NM copy $22.
Neon Rose #17, Blushing Peony Clothing Store, Haight Street 1067; another typical classic Victor Moscoso poster with red background, center color drawing of a couple of doll-like figures dressed up in very bright clothes; nice attractive image, beautiful NM copy $27.50.
Neon Rose #B-2, Nieman-Marcus Poster Show Exhibition, Dallas 1967, beautiful large double-sized poster by Victor Moscoso with the colors and imagery typical of his work of this period; for illustration, see The Art of Rock, pl. 2.356, NM/NM- copy that's been rolled in a tube for awhile but will flatten out eventually, $45.
Bally Lo, circa 1966, attractive purple, pink, and blue Wes Wilson image in the style of his early Fillmore posters; has the store name in large swirly letters in the middle; typical op-art background. Nice early example of Wilson's art. Nice copy, strong VG+ with hard to see horiz. crease across bottom part of poster, otherwise very clean; $150; VG+/VG; some tape discoloration in the margins; image itself is OK. $125. (*)
Morrison For Mayor, circa 1966-67, odd Wes Wilson poster shows a photo of some guy who looks a bit like the old-time TV actor Phil Silvers--remember him?-- with psychedelic lettering on a background consisting of a big green dollar sign; yellow, blue, orange & green; a really odd poster for the collector who is trying to get all Wilson's early work. I don't know who this guy was, but maybe some of you do. NM $50.
Michael McClure's "The Beard," 8/20/66, Flora Schwimley Little Theatre, Berkeley; fairly well known early poster in red and blue sort of like an old western playbill with nonsense language at top and photos of Billy the Kid and Jean Harlow, show info in red lettering; printed by Bindweed Press. Nice NM copy, $50.
Michael McClure's "The Beard," circa 1966, original theatre poster for this show; 22 x 28" on cardboard stock (extra shipping charge) with large photos of Billy the Kid and Jean Harlow, and the rest of it is nonsense words--this version doesn't have any information about the date and location whatsoever! I guess you had to know what it was. This one is printed by Telegraph Press in Berkeley and is much harder to find than the smaller version. First copy I've ever offered. Asking $300 plus shipping, must be shipped flat due to thickness of cardboard. If you look at the phots of me at the poster show posted on the main page of this site, you can see this in the background.)
David Best Ceramics Show, 6/5-7/1/73, deSaisset Art Gallery, University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA; this is neat Mouse poster; approximately 15" x 20", design is like a Time Magazine cover with a red border and a B & W photo of a flying saucer in the center with a headline "Martians Land to See Best Show." Great item for collectors of Stanley Mouse's oddball posters. Nice NM, $35.00 (*)
Art Show, Concrete Foundation for the Arts, 10/13/78, Peanut Gallery, San Rafael; poster for the opening of this exhibition; neat full color large, double-sized poster with portraits of all the artists who exhibited at this show, including Kelley, Mouse, Moscoso, Dave Sheridan, Larry Noggle, Pat Ryan, and others; poster was a collaboration by all the exhibiting artists and the portraits are nice; for illustration, see The Art of Rock, pl. 4.280. Nice NM copy, $35. (*)
Original Artwork by famous rock and roll/psychedelic artists
Posters--Bill Graham and Miscellaneous Fillmore Auditorium
Posters--Family Dog and Related
Posters--Miscellaneous Non-California (1960's and early '70's)
Posters --More Recent Stuff (late 1970's to the present)
Handbills--Bill Graham and Miscellaneous Fillmore Auditorium
Handbills--Family Dog and Related
Handbills--Miscellaneous California (1960's and early '70's)
Handbills--Miscellaneous Non-California (1960's and early '70's)
