BG100 Printing analysis

General art-related discussion.
cushway
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Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:36 pm

Over the last several months and years I have been working with various people concerning the proof sheets. Right now Damon from expressobeans has been helping me with the photography of the posters, dockets, etc. What I’ve decided to do, at least for now, is to put up one of the posters and explain, as much as possible, the methodology we have employed.

The posters being displayed here are BG099 and BG100. We found a printing docket that shows BG100 was printed twice and we seek to prove this here. The materials we are working with are listed below in the explanation.

We have a press sheet that is usually called a “Make Ready” for BG099 and BG100. There is also a press sheet showing a calendar on one side and the backside showing overprints of BG105, BG106, cards and tickets and other things that are hard to pinpoint. We are assuming that the BG099/100 Make Ready press sheet is from a first printing (A Make Ready sheet are usually leftover sheets from previous jobs that are put through a sheet fed press in order to get the registration and ink coverage/coloring correct on the print. Sometimes this would take a while and sheets were reused for this purpose). On the BG099/100 sheet we have here there is an overlay of BG105 and BG106 as well as a calendar for the other sheet. As the calendar, to my knowledge, was never reprinted as well as the tickets and cards, and the fact that they were probably all printed near the same time, we feel leads great credence to the fact that this is truly a first printing proof sheet of BG099/100. We then looked for something significant on the print plate that was only on the poster samples we have, both of which are show here. We discovered a green “inkblot” that is located under the crook of the “V” in Quicksilver in the band listing on the bottom. This green inkblot is only present on one of the posters and not on the other. Damon also has shown this image with red and green filters where you can more clearly see this blot. Given the information above, we feel that is highly probable that the first printing of BG100 is the one with no green inkblot showing under the crook of the V in Quicksilver. I reviewed this print sheet with Tom Hill who has been a printer for 27 years and worked on the same kind of presses. He feels this green inkblot is characteristic of being in the printing itself and does differentiate two distinct printings.

I am very much interested in anyone’s comments, criticisms, etc. Purpose we have missed something here or misinterpreted something. This is meant to be an open discussion and we look forward to any and all comments.


Make Ready Sheet

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Calendar Side

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BG105 Side

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Printing Docket

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Printing Docket close up

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BG100 Bottom text

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BG100 (first printing) no inkblot

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BG100 (second printing) with inkblot

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Proof Sheet without inkblot

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Uploaded these photos kind of rushed so we apologize if there are any mistakes and/or confusion. Think its good though.
ryan_1969

Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:52 pm

holy proof sheet.
norbyjake
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Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:59 pm

This analysis is thorough, and certainly makes sense. If you have a minute, you might want to show the invoice that indicates this poster was reprinted. The only invoice I could find in the post was the invoice for the original order from Bill Graham.

Please continue to approach this endeavor in the same manner you have here. Your contributions are greatly appreciated.
cushway
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Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:36 pm

Sorry about the missing printing docket---just photographed it today and will post today or tomorrow.
Also, These photos are easier to 'read' than the poster----maybe because Daman is doing such a great job of shooting them....

Phil
cushway
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Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:50 pm

Ok, got em. Here ya go.

BG100 docket for reprints

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close up shot

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Poster from the reprint docket

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Shot of the inkblot on reprinted poster from docket

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wandering-gypsy
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Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:36 pm

Nicely done!
:thumb:

I'm happy to see Tom Hill involved in this project. His knowledge, accrued over a very long time as a printer, runs very deep.

Nice scans and pix as well.
mfs67
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Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:03 pm

This is a great find, and very well presented. The pics and scans are nice indeed. :2thumb:
bangyman
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Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:23 pm

those proof sheets are amazing. as a screenprinter, i totally get off on stuff like that. do old ones like these ever make it out into the open market? i would love to get my hands on one if anyone out there has any lines on one, i'd love to talk!
thanks!
ben@burlesquedesign.com
whalaw
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Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:05 pm

Phil, this information is unbelievable. And, electrachrome, your shots are perfect. My thanks to both of you for your efforts.

William

:D
mfs67
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Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:24 pm

Check out the last BG100 entry in the price history (5/25/07). You can see the same inkblot in the auction picture.
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macc5
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Thu Oct 18, 2007 12:25 am

wow... great work phil and great shots damon!

so excited to see this type of information on the old stuff unfold here.. .keep em coming.. :D
therose7
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Thu Oct 25, 2007 12:09 am

hi phil,
i was very impressed by the way you handled this post. the information was very useful. you approached this one in a scholarly way. i hope that the rest of your posts based on the bill graham reprint dockets will be done in this manner. i will enter this information in my guide, and i will give you credit for this discovery.
thanks,
eric
therose7
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Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:46 pm

thanks to phil motivating me to do research in the archive assembled by jacaeber kastor on reprinting of posters between bg-66 and bg-114, i have discovered a number of reprints which i was unaware of because i did not have access to the print records of tea lautrec litho which phil has. i do not wish to waste space here by describing them as i list them on my own site because some readers know of them from jacaeber's catalog, but for those who use my guide and did not have jacaeber's catalog, i will be listing those numbers here as i list the new information on my website. the first of these new reprint listings is for bg-81. it can be found on my site under corrections. <http://home.earthlink.net/~therose7/>
therose7
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Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:47 am

i think a useful point of departure for discussing possible errors in my guide raised by the possibility of phil cushway's posting of reprinting dockets and reprinting samples for items between bg-66 and bg-114 might be to list the items in that group which have reprints i already have listed in my guide and which i believe to be complete and correct as they currently stand. i believe this would include: bg-66, bg-74, bg-75, bg-81 (with today's update), bg-87, bg-100 (with phil's recent update), bg-101, bg-102, bg-103 (with yesterday's update), bg-107, bg-108, bg-109, bg-110, bg-111, bg-112 and bg-114. if you have any corrections or additions to do with these, phil, it might be productive to address these before i go on to the others. ditto for anyone else who might want to add to phil's material. not that this includes an "if not forever hold your peace" clause, anyone can add anything they want whenever they like, but after much study of the material in the wolfgangsvault inventory as well as the incredibly thorough archive amassed by jacaeber kastor who had access to some? all? of the tea lautrec litho printing dockets phil has, i think all these numbers include reprints which are correct as they currently appear in my guide or appear in updates on my website.
therose7
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Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:20 am

the next list which i think might be useful is a list of those posters between bg-66 and bg-114 which i believe were printed only once, ones for which there are no reprints listed in the printing dockets and samples held by phil cushway. if there are any mistakes here, phil, please tell me as soon as possible.
these one lawful printing only items are: bg-67, bg-68, bg-69, bg-70, bg-71, bg-72, bg-73 bg-76 (both versions clearly predate the concerts as discussed in my guide), bg-77, bg-79, bg-84, bg-85, bg-91, bg-92 and bg-94. at least a few of these have been pirated/bootlegged, and the pirates/bootlegs are listed in my guide, but we are discussing lawful printings here.
it is my understanding, phil, that you have an older edition of my guide. when you are checking these two lists for what i have in my current guide against what you have in your files of reprinting dockets and samples, please refer to my website for corrections and additions for each of these numbers, because some reprints, for example the index reprint of bg-75, may have been added since your edition was printed.
again, my website is <http://home.earthlink.net/~therose7/>
the link to the corrections and additions section is part of the way down the home page.
if anyone else has any reason to believe any of the above bill graham posters has been reprinted lawfully, please post this information on this forum or contact me directly.
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