STEPHEN STILLS debut LP in one-off prototype wallet package design by JOHN KOSH

$

178

This is a unique item for any Stephen Stills collector.

It’s the prototype for a packaging idea for Stills’ debut solo album release in the UK, designed by John Kosh. Kosh is the legendary UK art director and album cover designer behind dozens of albums in your record collection, like The Beatles - Abbey Road, Eagles - Hotel California, The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, The Who - Who’s Next and James Taylor’s Greatest Hits. He’s been nominated for seven Grammys and won three. This was likely a one-off prototype presented to Atlantic Records as a design idea, but ultimately rejected - probably for being too expensive to produce.

It's a wrap-around wallet (and when I say wallet it’s really just a piece of light card) with fold-out flaps on the right and bottom side when opened up. In addition to the record and sleeve which are the regular UK 1st edition (plum labels etc), there are some extra items in the wallet. There’s a fold-out poster of Stills smoking a cigarette, an insert bearing the same Charles John Quarto poem “A Child Grew Up On Strings” that you see on the back cover of the album. Then there are eight postcards with photographs of Stills. There are two designs and four of each of them – one of Stephen with a horse, and one of him on a horse. Presumably if the production of this package had gone ahead it would have just come with one of each postcard. The reverse of the postcards say “Stephen Stills. Atlantic Recording Corporation. Printed in U.S.A.”. On the back of the wallet it says “design: John Kosh”.

CONDITION:

The outer “wallet” sleeve has some general wear and a few marks on the back. If it was a record sleeve I would grade it VG. The very top edge has some wear and creasing from poking out of the top of a plastic sleeve. This wear translates across the top of the poster and insert, which are both perfect otherwise. The postcards are all in great shape. The actual record sleeve is VG+ with just some minor general wear. The record is also VG+ with light marks only. There’s a very light scratch across the first two tracks but it only produces a few low audible pops, mostly in the dead space between songs.