Archive Annotations: Jimmy Cauty Stamps of Mass Destruction 4th & 5th Class AP/test prints

NOTE:
Archive Annotations are a series of sporadic and incomplete anecdotes regarding past L-13 releases, oddities and rejects which are dug up from the vaults to be paraded about and subsequently DISPOSED OF via the archive section of the site shop.
Usually these are unique items, limited numbers from a long sold-out edition or unreleased experiments.
Once they are sold and their fate is sealed in a private collection these annotations will remain as reference to their existence.

These A4 prints could be the first ever printouts of these design.

The Stamps of Mass Destruction 4th, 5th and 6th Class were the first editions we published for Jimmy in 2004, a year after the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class published by Art Republic were withdrawn under threat of legal action by the Royal Mail.

The copyright issue rested on Jimmy’s use of the Machin Bust so in these new designs he used a different bust facing the opposite way. Not realising this the Royal Mail issued us with our first ever cease and desist letter which in turn lead to a couple of meetings with the RMs Intellectual Property Gestapo. After the humiliating realisation that the new designs were not in breach of their copyright they changed tact and claimed they were too similar to Jimmy’s original Stamps of Mass Destruction and as those were in breach so were these. It didn’t really make sense but by this time we’d sold as many of the prints as we needed to so also withdrew them from sale without having to accept any guilt. They then left us alone until the Scab Stamp Scandal of 2009.

We’re not 100% sure what these A4 prints are. They could be what Jimmy printed out and brought to show us before we moved on to proofing on the large format printer. We have the 4th and 5th Class listed separately but the 6th is missing.

29.7 x 21 cm

Inkjet print on photo rag paper

Signed in pencil

Comes with  a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Jimmy Cauty.

Only one of each available.

In excellent condition.

Sold as seen.

Check availability in the archive section of the L-13 shop. SOLD