June 25 auction of vintage posters captures essence of great music

Possibly unique 1962 Pete Seeger poster, estimated at $750-$1,500

NEW YORK – Great rock concerts can be unbelievably great – literally. The experience can be so fantastic that the words flee from your brain as you try to explain it to another who wasn’t lucky enough to be there. But even if you can remember the best show of your life reasonably well, you’ll jump at the chance to own an original poster that advertised it.

On June 25, starting at 8 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will stage a Vintage Psychedelic Rock n Roll Posters auction, featuring 193 lots for performances that date from the 1960s until now. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

Leading the pack is a strikingly well-designed graphic for a May 15, 1962 Pete Seeger show at Earlham College. It pictures Seeger in profile, rendered in blue on a black background, with the concert information in white lettering. At some point after the printing but before the show, someone took it upon themselves to glue a strip above the word “college” that reads “E.C. Students $1.25 in advance.” It might possibly be the only example of its type. An Earlham College student was moved to take down and save the poster, and kept it for five decades. Measuring 14 in by 22 in, the poster carries an estimate of $750-$1,000.

1959 Bobby Darin window card, estimated at $500-$1,000

Another strong lot in the lineup is a 1959 window card that touts a July 9 Bobby Darin performance at The Oasis, a venue in Eagle Point, Oregon. Darin is pictured at center-right above a short list of his hits: Dream Lover, Bullmoose, Splish Splash, and Queen of the Hop. The scarce vintage lithograph is estimated at $500-$1,000.

1969 John Mayall poster for a show at the Fillmore West, estimated at $75-$150

Rounding out the highlights is a 1969 poster advertising a late August appearance by John Mayall at the Fillmore West. Its designer, David Singer, chose not to depict Mayall or any of the other acts on the bill; instead, he created an image of a small, luminous globe on the step of a staircase imposed on an oversize image of the moon against a forest backdrop, and placed the whole within a pink frame. The poster is estimated at $75-$150.

View top auction results on LiveAuctioneers here: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/pages/recent-auction-sales/