Osiris Posters

Here is an ORIGINAL and very rare 1967 Osiris poster designed by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat for the great Pink Floyd (with Syd Barrett) at the UFO Club in London. Original first printings of this heavily bootlegged poster are extremely rare (more info below) and of course the fact that it's a concert poster for Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd make this one of the most collectible posters by Hapshash in the Osiris series (the highly acclaimed and collectible psychedelic posters made in London in 1967/68, printed and distributed by the Osiris Agency. ) This is number OA 114 in the series.

This measures 19 3/4" x 29 3/4" and is in incredible condition-- two of the corners have very very tiny creases, but otherwise it is perfect--so I'll grade it a strong Near Mint. Printed on fairly thin paper with metallic ink, these posters are almost never found in this condition--but this one has been in storage for many years (see below) and is an exceptional example.

Many of the Osiris/ Hapshash posters, have been bootlegged, and passed off as original first printings, including this one. There is an excellent article about this and the Osiris/Hapshash posters in general by Brad Rogers at
( http:/www.whocollection.com/hapshash_&_osiris_posters.htm ). Brad has detailed much about the bootleg Osiris posters, and I can add to that that there is no better test as to an Osiris poster's authenticity--especially this one-- than holding it side by side with a known original (most of those offered on Ebay are the bootlegs, which look quite genuine until you do the comparison test.) Don't believe the dealers who claim these weren't bootlegged--they absolutely were. Brad is soon to update his site with more information about the originals versus fakes, and I visited him recently and compared his originals and mine with some known fakes, and while the fakes are very well done, when you compare the two it's obvious which are the originals.

On this particular poster, there are a few ways to tell if one is authentic (very few are.) First, as these were silkscreened, looking closely you can see areas where the layers of ink have built up on top of one another. This is most apparent in the top corner areas and to the left and right of the castle tower, where you can see red paisley shapes on top of silver ink. On the first printings, you can see these red shapes were silkscreened on top of what looks like an irregularly shaped "pool" of metallic silver ink, which when viewed from an angle, is readily apparent. You don't see this on the bootlegs. Also the silver comet tail and to a lesser extent the blue one in the top right corner are very regular and clear--on the bootleg, the silver comet tail is missing some of the dots in the middle , making it look a bit irregular. In person, there are more differences, but I've tried to outline some of the differences that I could show in photographs. And as you can see from the last photo, there is so much ink on the thin paper that you can see a ghosting of the image on the back side. Authentic first printing Osiris/Hapshash posters are extremely rare and highly sought after. And this one is a stunner.

This Hapshash original has been sitting in storage for more than 20 years (the boots date from the last 5-6 years or so.) This came from a never before on the market poster collection I was lucky enough to purchase. It was inherited 20 years ago by a non-collector, who recently unpacked it for the first time. There are some very rare posters included, including other Osiris/Hapshash ones, which we will be auctioning this week and in the weeks to follow--so check our other auctions.

And Pink Floyd fans, be sure to ask about our recently acquired poster for the Floyd's first ever concert (ie, first show not in a club, but a larger venue), the International Times Benefit at the Roundhouse in London, with The Soft Machine. As far as we can determine, this is the ONLY copy in existence of this amazing Pink Floyd rarity. Email us and we'll be happy to send you a link.