Wednesday, 20 November 2013

AFFORDABLE VINTAGE BLOTTERS

These days it’s getting increasingly difficult find original vintage blotter art, by vintage I mean blotter art printed before 2000, after 2000 the market started to be flooded with vanity blotter art, this is blotter art that was never intended to be dipped, it is produced solely to be enjoyed as a novelty form of art work, a lot of vanity blotter was and still is produced in there 100’s and doesn't really increase in value, unlike vintage blotters, which can, I could waffle on about the differences between them and which is the best and why, either way there is some very bad stuff appearing on eBay at the moment, and should be avoided at all costs.


Alice Through The Looking Glass [double sided] (Mark McCloud)

You still pick some affordable vintage blotters up if you know what you’re looking for, blotters mainly made in the 90’s by Mark McCloud called the dirty dozen, over the years McCloud has produced some of the most iconic blotters of all time like Pizzs' Mad Hatter and the double sided Alice Through The Looking Glass blotters, and many of McCloud's blotters have found their way onto the streets. there are a few poor reprints of McCloud's blotters, namely the Mad Hatter, Alice Through The Looking Glass and Beavis & Butthead Psychedelic Experience blotters.


Condors Flying Through the Electromagnetic Field (Mark McCloud)


Beavis & Butthead Psychedelic Experience [tan paper not white](Mark McCloud) this blotter isn't cheap, but it's cool as!


 Mad Hatter (Mark McCloud)



Thomas Lyttle Blotters


Another good buy are the first set of vanity blotters, these were printed back in the early 90’s by Thomas Lyttle, Lyttle was the Publisher and Editor of the kaleidoscopic journal, psychedelic monograph's, essays and books, and stuff,  these sheets were produced in order to have pioneers of the psychedelic community to sign, the likes of Albert Hofmann and Timothy Leary to name but a few, these sheets now go for hundreds of pounds, but thankfully many still remain unsigned and fairly affordable, two blotters from this set also made it onto the streets in the early 90’s, the beautiful Fractal Sun and Fractal Coast, other blotter prints by Lyttle include: Kaleidoscope, Opium Den, Geisha Girl, Tantric Couple, Illuminautis by H.R. Giger and Easy Rider/Peter Fonda, as far as i know none of these have been reprinted yet, blotters go for around £45 each, signed blotters go for £100's



Fractal Sun (Thomas Lyttle)


Fractal Coast (Thomas Lyttle)


Kaleidoscope (Thomas Lyttle)


Plastikman ‘Sheet One’

This was the perforated sleeve for Richie Hawtin’s full-length debut, circa 1993, this sheet was dosed by a few individuals on a very small DIY scale, but there were professionally produced Plastikman blotters in circulation around at the same time, these dipped sheets came in blue and red. This blotter has been reprinted a few times but you can still pick up a copy of the original 1993 CD on eBay relatively cheap, I bought mine for £3.98 including postage.



Red Dragon

This blotter originated from Mark McCloud, it’s small only 4” by 4”, and not the most visually impressive looking blotter in the world, and is easily neglected, but this blotter was in circulation from the late 70’s and early 80’s, and there are not many original blotters left from period, rare, old and historic and can be bought for around £5-10, if your just starting a vintage blotter collection, this is a good place to start.   




From the DEA’s Microgram, Volume XX, No 7, July 1987


Mindstates 60th Anniversary Blotter

Conceived back in 2003 by Jon Hanna as a fundraiser to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the psychoactive effects of LSD, this beautiful blotter acid art was created by artist Stevee Postman and printed with soy-based inks onto 7.5 X 7.5-inch sheets of hemp-blend paper, each of which was perforated into 900 quarter-inch "hits". A limited edition of 60 were signed and numbered by the inventor of LSD, Dr. Albert Hofmann, This blotter appeared dipped worldwide soon after the Mind States Conference in 2003. Mind states anniversary rated around 200-300ug.


It’s getting harder to find and the price is starting rise, this will be a good investment, so get it now, priced from £50 upwards.






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