THE BEATLES Sgt Pepper 1st Pressing UK RAREST FOURTH PROOF SLEEVE COMPLETE

$

100

FAIR OFFERS WILL BE CONSIDERED

WOW!!!! For sale is a very rare and collectible “Fourth Proof” sleeved 1st UK Mono Pressing of The Beatles’ landmark 1967 masterpiece Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band!!! These 1st UK pressings are rare as it is, but the “Fourth Proof” sleeves are very difficult to find and were never intended to be distributed. For those of you unfamiliar with the Fourth Proof sleeves here is a little history lesson:

1. This unique variant of this album features what was a pre-production sleeve. The first three ‘Proof’ sleeves never saw the light of day, these ‘Fourth Proof’ sleeves were passed around at EMI for final agreement. They were never meant to be released, but a small number of these sleeves did find their way into the shops. As these were ‘Proof’ sleeves they should NEVER have left the printers.

There are a number of unique features to these ‘Proof’ sleeves when compared to the final sleeves that went onto official production:

A. The printed text ‘Fourth Proof’, ‘AR’ and ‘D 13217’ printed upside down, found on the top right ‘flip back’ on the inner ‘gate fold’ of the sleeve. The story of this is that the old style of ‘visual flip backs’ were on the way out and the sleeve for the latest Beatles LP, ‘Sgt Pepper’, was to feature the new ‘hidden inner flip back’ design, (but this never happened) it was therefore thought that the above text would NOT be seen. Apparently the ‘A R’ stands for the designers initials and the ‘D 13217’ is the internal catalogue number for the printers of the sleeve, ‘Garrod and Lofthouse’,

B. The rear of the sleeve features the text ‘Printed and made by Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd Patents Pending’, it is only the ‘Fourth Proof’ sleeves and a very small number of very early UK ‘flip back’ Pepper mono sleeves that have the text, ‘Patents Pending’. The sleeve normally just states ‘Printed and made by Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd’ (G&L). By the time of the official UK launch of Sgt Pepper in June 1967, G&L had got their ‘Patents’ confirmed and the text, ‘Patents Pending’ was removed from the rear of the sleeve,

C. The color of George’s jacket appears to more of a pink color instead of red as it appears on the standard sleeves.

D. The color of John’s jacket appears more of a yellow color instead of green as on the standard sleeves.

Needless to say, these are very RARE and highly collectible. This copy is COMPLETE with the “cutout” insert and “Fool” red and white wavy inner sleeve. It is in decent shape all around, though not a Near Mint copy which can sell for hundreds of dollars. This is your chance to own a rare piece of history without breaking the bank!

Condition is as follows:

Matrix/Runout/Mother/Stampers:

Side 1:

Matrix: XEX-637-1

Mother/Stampers: 3 RHT

Side 2:

Matrix: XEX-638-1

Mother: 0? C? (Hard to tell due to the way it was stamped)

Stampers: RRA

DISC: VG some superficial hairlines, marks, nothing major. Haven’t play tested but doesn’t appear to have any reason to jump or skip. Play test may be requested if desired.

SLEEVE: VG to VG+

Very decent example of this mega rare sleeve. Some thumbnail laminate creases, opening edges are a little wavy. For some reason, nearly every single Fourth Proof sleeve has a flaky spine and this is no exception.

INNER: VG to VG- original red and white cloud “Fool” inner is in very good condition due to some old taping on the edges presumably to cover small splits. Otherwise only minimal creases and only a couple of TINY tears about a millimeter long on top. Otherwise in very nice condition.

INSERT: VG+ Peter Blake Made In Gt. Britain cutout insert is fully intact, sharp corners save for a tiny ding on bottom left, slight wear top left, some writing in pen “I would trust her” top left and the name Keith Mark Waters written discreetly on the drum head. Almost didn’t see it! Overall, an unbent, non creased, sharp insert with a little writing.

I strive for 100% customer satisfaction so I have carefully inspected and graded this item. Please see photos and read the description carefully. You will receive the item exactly as described and are certain to be satisfied. In the unlikely event of a problem, contact me first and I will do everything I can to fix it!

Shipping: I am a vinyl collector myself so I completely understand the importance of good packaging and will ship this very carefully and securely. The disc will be put into a generic inner sleeve and placed behind the outer sleeve and protected by thick cardboard. The cost is $4 Media Mail within the USA or $8 Parcel Select Ground. Please choose which you would prefer during checkout. No international shipping on this item. If you live in another country and are interested, contact me and I will consider shipping it to you depending on your location. I only ship internationally using USPS Priority Mail with Registered Tracking which costs $36 in total.

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions you might have and thank you for looking!