Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

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Spencer Zahn's Grand Hotel artwork

The 'Monsieur Armand' illustration


Bid for this unique piece of music history at eBay

This unique piece of original artwork by renowned designer Spencer Zahn has been offered for auction by Gary Brooker, the sale proceeds to go to the BJ Wilson Memorial Fund, and to continue the running of 'Beyond the Pale', the Procol Harum website.

The dimensions of the picture, measured by Gary himself, are 998 x 749 mm. The artwork has been executed in charcoal on Rives BFK Elephant double weight paper. It has been fixed to prevent smudging.

This picture didn't appear in the Grand Hotel booklet, because the song was not used on the album: it surfaced on Procol's next recording, of course. The piece is consequently a real rarity.

We took two sets of photographs of the Grand Hotel originals: the first set was taken out of doors at the Brooker residence on 26 October 2004; the second set was taken indoors  in Bristol on 8 November, with the addition of items to show the scale of the pictures: a yardstick and an apple.

The first set rather over-emphasises the slightly yellow tinge of the art paper; the second set has a blue tinge reflected from the cloth the pictures are propped against. Click on the images to see them in detail.


Bid for this unique Procol rarity at eBay
More about Grand Hotel More about the artwork | Index of Zahn artwork pieces for sale in 2004/5

PH on stage | PH on record | PH in print | BtP features | What's new | Interact with BtP | For sale | Site search | Home