The original art for Led Zeppelin’s debut album sold for $325,000 at auction on June 18, blowing past an estimate of $20,000-30,000.
The stipple tracing artwork, created and still owned by George Hardie, was sold in an online auction by Christie’s.
The item had been given an estimate of $20,000-$30,000 but bidding reached beyond the $100,000 mark on Thursday evening in the final hours before bidding closed.
Hardie created the artwork in 1969 while he was still a student at the Royal College of Art in London.
The artwork created by Hardie is quite small and measures 177 x 177mm, according to Christie’s.
Hardie said he was paid £60 for the artwork.
“I think the drawing made a good and memorable cover, but this was more to do with the photograph and Jimmy Page’s choice of it than with my skill as a dotter,” he told Christie’s in an interview.
The artwork was rediscovered several years ago when Hardie was clearing out his studio.
“It was unsullied, in a clean folder on which one of my partners had written years ago, ‘G’s pension fund,'” Hardie told Christie’s.
What they didn’t know.. that it was a drawing (taken from a photo, from a historical event)
Errr,no….the artist clearly states he copied it from a photograph..”the drawing made a good and memorable cover, but this was more to do with the photograph and Jimmy Page’s choice of it””.