THE SMITHS Shakespeare's Sister 7' single unreleased artwork proof sleeve

	£		91
	$		120

The Smiths.
"Shakespeare's Sister"
Sleeves were issued by condor litho printers whom were Rough Trades Official printers of these proof sleeves.
Printed on paper stock i.e. This is what you call the pre proof stage which is before the card proof stage. The paper measures 15" by 8" and shows the front and back of this iconic sleeve which features Pat Phoenix, best-known for her long-running role in the UK TV series Coronation Street, A private shot given to him by Pat. 
The sleeve is different to the released sleeve as the reverse of the sleeve credits "What She Said" as the b side which was omitted from the commercial sleeve plus image of pat is sharper and the colours brighter in contrast to the released sleeve.  picture 2 shows the back of the original released sleeve so you can see the difference. 
Only 3 of these were printed. 
The condition of the sleeve is near mint as i have kept them in professional storage boxes in a cool,dark and damp free environment. Also an added bonus is all my items come from a smoke and pet free home. 
Up for auction is a proof sleeve for the above release for the sole purpose of seeing what the sleeve would look like aesthetically before they went to print. These mock sleeves were printed up for Joe Slee who was the art co-ordinator for Rough Trade Records. I came across these pieces of historic art around 1998 and was just bold over by the history of it all its not everyday you come across items like these and there so stunning to look at and hopefully my pictures will try to allay this to you.
I purchased these items from a person who i cannot name but they did work at Rough trade up and till they closed in the 1990's. These pieces of art pop history are genuine, not re-worked prints i can and will 100% guarantee this and anything else i will be selling.
Hopefully these items will appeal to you as much as they did to me over a decade ago and i think there's something here for every kind of enthusiast and every type of collector from the completest to the occasional collector but i must stress that these individual proofs are very rare and were not made in the 100's they were very limited mostly to only 6 or 7 of each and others that i own are less than that number as they were only made so that Caryn Gough,Joe slee and Morrissey could view them to see if they had the finished product they all liked or to view alternate versions of sleeve. These are very rare items indeed and it's unusual to find any bands proof sleeves never mind The Smiths proof sleeves. Here's a chance to be the envy of the Smiths collecting world.
I have been an avid Smiths and Morrissey collector for over 20 years and enjoyed every minute of collecting you know that searching for an item, the smell the feel and the satisfaction you feel when you find the one or see and hear new things its a great buzz.  I hadn't planned to sell any of my collection until my world was turned upside down as my wife was diagnosed with "cancer" and now i want to start selling my collection to raise some money so i can take her away to New York a place she has always wanted to go. I will be posting items up over several weeks until its gone. So if you like the items I'm posting up on here make sure you keep coming back weekly.

"Shakespeare's Sister" is a non-album single by British band The Smiths, released in March 1985. It first appeared on albums in 1987 via the Louder Than Bombs and The World Won't Listen compilations. Its title refers to a section of Virginia Woolf's feminist essay A Room of One's Own in which Woolf argues that if William Shakespearehad had a sister of equal genius, as a woman she would not have had the opportunity to make use of it. (In reality, William Shakespeare had four sisters, but only one who survived past the age of eight and into adulthood: Joan Shakespeare.) Another interpretation of the title is that it refers to the Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie. The Gentleman Caller, who is courting Tom Wingfield's sister, refers to Tom as "Shakespeare", and there are other allusions to the play in the song's lyric. The original single's sleeve featured Pat Phoenix, best-known for her long-running role in the UK TV series Coronation Street. The song reached number 26 in the UK Singles Chart. The band Shakespears Sister [sic] took their name from the song.

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