John Lennon | Original Title Page from 'Bag One', 1969

John Lennon

Original Title Page from 'Bag One', 1969

lithograph signed by John Lennon, and numbered 6/300 in pencil, on BFK Rives paper, (577 x 765mm), 6 areas visible where the original bright white of the paper can be seen due to tape removal from the verso due to previous mounting

"[The Beatles] had some bad scenes earlier this year, so from now on we’re determined to be ourselves. open to whatever new influences come along. Perhaps I’ll get interested in drawing and painting again. You can’t stand still and I think I’ve been standing still for a bit too long.” (John Lennon, 1969)

John Lennon created the 'Bag One' series of drawings to illustrate his wedding and honeymoon with Yoko Ono and gave them to her as a present in 1969. The next year, a series of fifteen lithographs were created based on the original drawings and exhibited in New York and London. The seven erotic plates were confiscated by Scotland Yard as pornography. Lennon was prosecuted under the Metropolitan Police Act 1839, which made it an offence to distribute indecent material in a public thoroughfare. A trial ensued, but the case was dismissed after three weeks.