THE SAN FRANCISCO POSTER COMPANY - 22 POSTER NEAR COMPLETE COLLECTION !

These posters sell between $20 and $40 each, with some of the items being more rare and selling into the 100’s.

This is your chance to get an INSTANT ROCK POSTER COLLECTION, High quality - near mint and each poster is about 14 x 20 and all printed in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

THE COLLECTION INCLUDES:
COSMIC CAR SHOW - Artist: Mouse
THE GRASS ROOTS
HUPMOBILE - Artist: Wes Wilson
THE CYRCLE
INVISIBLE CIRCUS - Artist: Dave Hodges
THE DAILY FLASH - Artist: Wes Wilson
THE DAILY FLASH - Artist: Mouse
13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS - Artist: Mouse
HELL’S ANGELS - BIG BROTHER: Artist: by Gut, real name Allen Terk
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - Artist: Mouse
SIERRA CLUB WILDERNSES CONFERENCE
COUNTRY JOE - Artist: Rehbock/Wiese
COUNTRY JOE - FINNISH BROTHERHOOD
SPARROW - Artist: Mouse
JAMES COTTON BLUES / QUICKSILVER
P.H. PHACTOR
GRATEFUL DEAD
JIM KWESKIN - Artist: Mouse
QUICKSILVER
PSYCHEDELIC ART - First West Coast Show - Artists: Tomm weller/Paul Kagan
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - Artist: Mouse
KEEP CALIFORNIA GREEN - Artist: Mouse

from beatnix2 on eBay:
The San Francisco Poster Co.

In the period between 1965 and 1971 in San Francisco There was an outburst of graphic creativity that is unparalleled in American art. Drawn by a handful of now well-known artists as well as a legion of lesser known ones, this work is known as Psychedelic Rock ConcerT Poster Art. At the heart of the early part of this era, 1966-1967 , was the print shop known as The Bindweed Press.The Bindweed Press was the DBA of a printer named Frank Westlake. Westlake personally printed several dozen of the best-known early San Francisco psychedelic posters including many original printings of the most famous early Family Dog images for concerts at the Avalon Ballroom as well as many posters and handbills for other local San Francisco venues such as Winterland. Among these are the world famous, iconic Skeleton and roses image for the Grateful Dead at the Avalon, Family Dog No.26, Frankenstein, also for the Dead at the Avalon, Family Dog No. 22 and the Zig-Zag man for Big Brother and the Holding company at the Avalon, Family Dog No. 14. All of these bear the bottom margin notation “The Bindweed Press “

Considering that the thought of these as disposable advertising and the paper stock he used was a low-cost vellum, Westlake did a remarkably good job printing these posters. The colors are vibrant, and the minor imperfections were seen as part of the raw energy pulsating through San Francisco in that era. Like most printers Westlake held onto his printing plates after the jobs were completed, and on numerous occasions he reprinted early Family Dog posters at the request of the late Chet Helms who owned the DBA “The Family Dog.†This was often done with the original printing plates.

There is no controversy about any of the above. Posters from the Bindweed Press Unquestionably are original printings, ones printed preconcert with the intention of distributing at least part of the press run to advertise the event, or authorized reprints, ones printed after the concert under the auspices of the concert promotor to sell in retail outlets. This is in contrast to pirate/bootleg posters or forgeries. Bootleg or pirate posters are the work of people not associated with either the concert promoter or the artists or any of the performers, people who take a copy of a poster, shoot photographs of it and use these photographs to produce new printing plates with which they print new posters which they seek to sell cheaply for quick profit without paying licensing fees for their products. Because these are done without access to the original artists’ drawings or the original printing plates, these typically are poorly printed, fuzzy, coarse and poorly colored. These are not designed to fool people that they are buying originals, and they are not sold for prices that originals would bring. Usually they are printed in large quantities. forgeries are printed in small quantities with the specific intention of fooling serious collectors into paying prices they would for originals. Every attempt is made to match the original in colors and paper stock.

Which brings us to the confusing case of The San Francisco Poster Co. which falls into the “none-of-the-above†category. Sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s Frank Westlake closed The Bindweed press and moved to England. He took with him many of the printing plates for psychedelic posters he had printed. he decided to make some money by printing these posters and selling them. He removed the Bindweed Press credits and replaced them with San Francisco Poster co. credits. These posters fall into two groups, Those done for the Family Dog and those done for other venues.

The exact status of these posters is difficult to pin down. None were authorized by the artists who created them, the promoters who commissioned them or the acts which appeared on them, but unlike pirates or bootlegs they were printed with the original plates so they are not of poor printing quality. Furthermore on the non-Family Dog items, he matched the colors rather well so that if one does not mind the possible ethical issue of buying unauthorized printings, these are a bargain and often collectible in their own right as variants which were printed not long after the events. In at least some cases the images were never copyrighted so it is reasonable to ask if any laws or ethical matters enter into the equation at all.

So long as the buyer is properly informed about the intricate and controversial history of this material, It has long been accepted to buy and/or sell it. These posters are over 35 years old and by virtue of their age and increasing rarity they have attained their own unique collectible attributes.

All MINT TO NEAR MINT !

NM