Charlatans 1965 Virginia City, NV "The Seed" Seminal Concert Poster (AOR-2.2). ...

Description

"THIS POSTER WAS THE SEED; IT STARTED EVERYTHING." --ALTON KELLEY

Charlatans 1965 Virginia City, NV "The Seed" Seminal Concert Poster (AOR-2.2). This is one pretty amazing piece, pre-dating every psychedelic poster ever made. An original first-printing cardstock concert poster advertising the Charlatans, featuring George Hunter and Dan Hicks, appearing at the Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada in the spring of 1965... specifically, "June 1-15." This poster is nicknamed "The Seed" because it is, unquestionably, the very first psychedelic concert poster to emanate from the new youth lifestyle of the San Francisco Bay area, where the art form was born. The Art of Rock book gives this poster tons of space. It also calls the Charlatans' six-week engagement "the birth of America's psychedelic era."

This seminal artwork was created by two of the band members, group leader Hunter and keyboardist Mike Ferguson. It features a charming mix of old-western medicine-show sensibilities and new Edwardian hipness, befitting the venue they were playing. Ferguson drew not only head shots of each band member, but also did a charming full-band portrait. Measures 10" x 14" and grades to restored Very Good condition. COA from Heritage Auctions.

Literature: See Grushkin, Paul, The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk, Abbeville Press, New York, 1987, p.69 (discussion) and p.89-90 (illus.).

More Information: Serious collectors know there are two versions of this poster... this one, the first one, which gives the dates as June 1-15 and is known as AOR-2.2; and the second print run, which gives the final correct date of "Opening June 21" and is known as AOR-2.1. So AOR's plate numbers are in the opposite order that the two were printed, sometimes causing confusion.

One of San Francisco's "big five" psychedelic poster artists, Alton Kelley, was once quoted as saying, "That poster was 'the seed.' It started everything for everybody; it was really an important piece."

Condition details: A paper conservator addressed a few edge and corner issues, mending pinholes, eradicating surface blemishes and minimizing some heavy creasing. It was once quarter-folded, but luckily caused zero color breakage. There remains a fair amount of crumpling in the poster's top half, which is almost exclusively visible on the verso only. The four corner tips are all slightly soft. The verso has minor tape lifts in four places, again all in the top half, but they pretty much just blend in with the cream-colored cardstock.


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