
Claire Tole-Moir
Head of Department
This auction has ended. View lot details


Sold for £30,000 inc. premium
Our Popular Culture specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialist
Head of Department
Provenance:
The vendor's son's best friend, Steve Ridder, a bass guitarist from California, moved to England and joined a band called The Corn Dollies in the late 1980s. Steve subsequently met Jann Howarth's daughter and she gave him the doll. After returning to the US, Steve gave the doll to the vendor's son as a wedding gift. During a visit to his son some years later, the vendor noticed that the condition of the doll had deteriorated somewhat and his son agreed to part with it.
The cover was created by Jann Haworth and her then-husband Peter Blake, and their work won the Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts. The doll can be quite clearly seen in position on the album cover, bottom centre, under the 'T' of 'Beatles'. It's possible it was a suggestion by George Harrison, although Peter Blake is quoted as saying that George only gave him a list of Indian gurus and four were indeed included in the cut-outs gathered behind the Beatles.