608

Donovan

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Donovan

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Auction Date:2017 Aug 09 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS, seven pages, 8.25 x 11.5, August 1973. Expansive letter to a fan, in part: "I travelled the road when I was younger in the early sixties regarding myself a Beatnik and enjoying the company of the ragged folk—sleeping rough and clean under the stars. I met with ex-seamen and ex-prisoners both tattooed, some in the primitive style and some in the more sophisticated electric style. My tattoo was made primitive style. Three needles bound together with cotton and a bottle of permanent ink…The primitive style of marking is, I am told practised behind bars to pass the heavy time. Mick Taylor was a fine–line artist on paper so he designed the head of a horse with bells on cords such as jesters would have on a stick in the other hand…I say the figure formed yet to my eyes it looked blurred—but it was there under the skin. The process took an hour or so and was not very pain full. The scratches scabbed over and some days later they peeled to reveal a tiny fine-line blue-tattoo of a horse's head with jesters bells at the elbow joint of my right arm. Very nice…The girls in the scene went in for flower symbols on the heel, hip, or other delicate positions. Very sexy…My tattoo has blurred over the years yet the form of the fine horsey nostril and plaited mane of the fab beast remains. There is obviously art-magic attatched [sic] to symbols marked upon the body—I exclude the dotted line around the wrist with the words—'cut here'—a 'deppression' [sic] tattoo from behind the walls of the evil prisons of man. My Grandmother (from my mother's side) was a large armed lady with a family of thirteen in the Catholic tradition. Upon her generous arms were many coloured tattoos of beasts and ex-lovers. It is not improbable that somewhere in my mother's family tree the blood of the 'Traveller' flows." In fine condition. Accompanied by a letter of provenance from the original recipient, in part: "In the early 1970's I was researching tattooing. It was a far different scene back then, I focused on sailors, bikers, whores and prisoners. I was a fan of Donovan's music, and he issued a 2 album set called 'A Gift From A Flower To A Garden.' It included a poster with an image of him that revealed a jester's horse on his elbow. To enhance my research, and because I was such a fan, I contacted Donovan through a friend in the music business and asked him to share his thoughts on his tattoo and tattooing with me. The enclosed piece of writing is the result."