89565: Prototype Family Dog Flyers & Artwork by Unknown

Prototype Family Dog Flyers & Artwork by Unknown Artists (Feat. Love and Blue Cheer) (19). A highly unusual and terrifically fun lot of prototype artwork and handbills for San Francisco's Family Dog circa March 1968, by an unknown artist or artists. These were likely drawn up in January or February of '68 in anticipation of the FD-109 concerts on the weekend of March 8-10, because the bands that played that show at the Avalon are all here: Love, Congress of Wonders and the Sons of Champlin. That doesn't explain the presence of Blue Cheer on all these prototypes, however, always mentioned as "March 10 only." Blue Cheer played for Bill Graham the following Thursday (Fillmore) and Friday (Winterland), so perhaps Chet Helms was hoping to book the band but Graham forbade them from doing any other local shows. Pure speculation; there are no documents accompanying these which explain them. So this lot is comprised of eight different original artworks and 11 resultant flyer/handbill prototypes of the same size, making 19 pieces in all. The non-artwork ‘final products,' BTW, are actually just cheap mimeographs to give decision-makers an idea of what they would look like; in no way do they resemble the kind of quality handbills used to advertise shows in 1968. These prototypes come from the personal archives of Bob Cohen, the man who co-owned the Family Dog and ran it with Chet Helms from early 1966 until the firm's demise in late 1968. Mr. Cohen has consigned his collection to us for this auction, and this is truly one of the most unique and interesting things included. It's fascinating how none of these have an artist's credit in any way, even a tiny last name written somewhere. That's a pretty amazing omission. So we have no idea if they're all by one person, or by several artists. Perhaps they wanted to stay modest while Chet Helms made up his mind. But even this is speculation. These come from the archives of Bob Cohen, co-owner of the Family Dog at the time, and he has no memory of how these came to be. But he does remember aspiring wannabe graphic artists bidding from time to time to get a poster assignment, from all parts of the country. Another thing that struck us in going through these... although it might appear somewhat easy to the untrained eye, it was not easy to come up with a compelling design for a psychedelic concert poster! The artists that did make the grade had talent. Average measurement for the 19 pieces is about 8 ½" x 11" and they grade to what we'll safely call Very Good condition, a very neutral appraisal because conventional grading doesn't apply here. None of them are damaged, per se; they all just have typical handling from being passed around and evaluated 52 years ago. COAs from Bob Cohen and from Heritage Auctions. To view Bob Cohen's biography, "A Patriarch of the San Francisco Scene," please {A HREF='https://www.heritagestatic.com/c/d/cms/846/919/7221-bio.84691987.pdf' target='blank'}click here{/A}. HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved