NOVEMBER 13, 2012 – The original collage that was photographed for the cover of The Beatles’ 1967 classic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album (taken on March 30, 1967 by Michael Cooper at Chelsea manor Photo Studios) sold for $87,720. The piece, which was designed by Peter Blake, was sold to an unnamed bidder as part of an auction of modern British art at Sotheby’s in London.Blake’s “Sgt. Pepper” cover was unlike anything the world had ever seen. The result was a collage bursting with color, texture, intellectual diversity, comedy, tragedy and time compressed. Even today, shrunk down to jewel case dimensions, the iconic design captures the eye and the imagination. And it came with a free cardboard mustache.
“In my mind I was making a piece of art rather than an album cover,” Blake said. “It was almost a piece of theater design.” It was Blake’s concept to assemble what he called “a magical crowd” around the band. “I offered the idea that if they had just played a concert in the park, the cover could be a photograph of them with the group who had watched the concert,” he said. “If we did this by using cardboard cut-outs, it could be whomever they wanted.”
