The original artwork for the 1974 <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Elton%20John&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Elton John</a> album The Bitch Is Back, which was eventually released as Caribou.&nbsp;<ul><li>From the collection of designer/art director/photographer Mike Ross, who was responsible for album covers by many artists including Paul McCartney, Elton John, The Police and Sting.</li><li>This artwork was presented to Elton John in the Rocket Records office in Wardour Street, London in late 1973 or early 1974. </li><li>The photo used to make the sketch was the same image as the one that was used on the front of the Honky Chateau cover. </li><li>If you pull up a piece of card within the sleeve, Elton sticks his tongue out to lick the lollipop whilst his eyes are closed. </li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> This original artwork idea got a good reaction from Elton and a few laughs, but wasn’t taken seriously as a final contender for the finished sleeve of the album. The lettering for the proposed title, The Bitch is Back, was written by hand using an actual red lipstick that was hastily borrowed from one of the girls in the Rocket office. The heart-shaped glasses and lollipop were intentional visual references to Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Lolita’.

Elton John The Bitch Is Back (Caribou) Proposed Album Artwork

Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library. The Reference Library

Lot Comprises: Ernest A. Savage, The Story of Libraries and Book Collecting, (New York, 1909), reprint New York, 1969, 8vo., publisher's green cloth Alan G. Thomas, Great Books and Book Collectors, New York, Excalibur Books, 1983, fol., publisher's cloth with dust jacket Alan G. Thomas, 1911-1992 Christopher De Hamel & Richard A. Linenthal, Fine books and book collecting : books and manuscripts acquired from Alan G. Thomas and described by his customers on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, Leamington Spa, J. Hall, 1981, fol., publisher's cloth Charles Nodier, The Book Collector, Cambridge, MA, 1951, 4to., publisher's marbled wrappers William Carew Hazlitt, A Roll of Honour: A Calendar of the Names of Over 17,000 Men and Women Who Throughout the British Isles and… have collected MSS and Printed Books from the XIVth to the XIXth Century, London, Bernard Quaritch, 1908, 4to., original paper wrappers, uncut Gabriel Naudé, Advice on Establishing a Library, with an Introduction by Archer Taylor, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1950, 8vo., publisher's blue cloth gilt, dust jacket Nicholas A. Basbanes, Patience & Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture, New York, 2001, 4to., publisher's cloth with dust jacket H. George Fletcher, ed., A Miscellany for Bibliophiles, New York, Grastorf & Lang, 1979, 4to., publisher's grey cloth, inscription by H.G.Fletcher dated 1983 relating to his visit to Chicago Janet Ing Freeman, The Postmaster of Ipswich: William Stevenson Fitch, Antiquary and Thief (Book collector occasional publications, 2), London, The Book Collector, 1997, 8vo., publisher's wrappers Kristian Jensen, Revolution and the antiquarian book : reshaping the past, 1780-1815, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011, 4to., publisher's original boards, dust jacket Bettina Wagner & Marcia Reed, ed., Early Printed Books as Material Objects : Proceeding of the Conference Organized by the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Munich, 19-21 August 2009, Berlin, International Federation and Library Associates, 2010, 4to., publisher's stiff printed paper boards Sandra Hindman, Michael Camille, Nina Rowe & Rowan Watson, Manuscript illumination in the modern age : recovery and reconstruction, Evanston, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, 2001, fol., publisher's printed wrappers Charles Isaac Elton & Mary Augusta Elton, The Great Book‐Collectors, London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd, 1893, 8vo., publisher's red cloth A.N.L. Munby, Some Caricatures of Book‐Collectors An Essay, Printed for Private Circulation by William H. Robinson, Ltd. Christmas, 1948, 8vo., original wrappers, printed paper label on upper cover Colin Franklin, Book Collecting as One of the Fine Arts and Other Essays, Aldershot, 1996, 4to., publisher's green cloth, dust jacket Richard Wendorf, The Literature of Collecting and Other Essays, Boston, Boston Athenaeum, 2008, 4to., publisher's black cloth, dust jacket Alfred Bonnardot, The Mirror of the Parisian Bibliophile: A Satirical Tale (translated by T. W. Koch), Chicago, (1st French ed. 1847), 1931, 8vo., blue cloth gilt, gilt slipcase, with prospectus Percy H. Muir, ed., Talks on Book‐Collecting, Delivered under the Authority of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association, by P.H. Muir, E.P. Goldschmidt, Simon Nowell‐Smith, John Carter, Howard M. Nixon, Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, Ernest Weil, London, 1952, 4to., publisher's blue cloth, dust jacket, inscription dated 1952 of David A. Huddlestone Alan G. Thomas, Fine Books (Pleasures and Treasures series), London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967, square quarto, publisher's printed blue cloth, dust jacket, presentation inscription from the author to T. Kimball Brooker Adrian Van Sinderen, The Best Indoor Game [souvenir book of address delivered at Syracuse University], Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 1957, fol., publisher's brown simulated morocco over brown boards, no. 164 of 250 copies, signed by author John Windle & Karma Pippin, Thomas Frognall Dibden, 1776‐1847: A Bibliography, New Castle, DE, 1999, 4to., publisher's blue cloth gilt Christopher De Hamel, Cutting Up Manuscripts for Pleasure and Profit (The 1995 Sol M. Malkin Lecture in Bibliography), Charlottesville, 1996, 8vo., pamphlet, wrapper (two copies) Brigitte Dekeyzer & Jan Van der Stock, ed., Manuscripts in Transition: Recycling manuscripts, texts and images (Proceedings of the International Congress held in Brussels, 5‐9 November 2002), (Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts, vol. 15), Paris, Louvain & Dudley, 2005, fol., pale greenish‐beige cloth, dust jacket Sold as a group, not subject to return.

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