Rare Original Led Zeppelin Album Photograph Sells for £16K

Auction Draws Global Attention

An original nineteenth century print of the photograph used on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s fourth album sold for £16,000 at auction in Sussex on February 25. The print, which shows an elderly thatcher carrying a bundle of sticks, had been expected to sell for between £1,500 and £2,000. Instead, strong interest pushed the final price to more than ten times its lower estimate.

The sale turned into a bidding contest between a telephone bidder in the United Kingdom and an online bidder in the United States. In the end, the UK buyer secured the print. The auction was handled by Denhams, a Sussex-based auction house, which described the piece as the largest known original version of the famous image.

A Significant Piece of Music History

“I am delighted to have sold such a significant piece of music history and got such a great result for the seller,” Leo Denham, managing director of Denhams, told LedZepNews. “The new UK-based buyer is very pleased with his purchase where it will take pride of place in his collection. It goes to show the continuing levels of interest there are for such examples of album art.”

As he prepared to offer the photograph for sale, Denham explained why it mattered. “This is a very interesting lot,” he said. “This is a rare and historically important Victorian photograph. It’s of exceptional significance as the source material for the Led Zeppelin IV album.”

The Image Behind the Album

Denham also spoke about how the photograph first came to the attention of the band. “Robert Plant saw it in an antiques shop, a colour print, near Jimmy Page’s house,” he continued. “That was the first time it was ever seen. Then Brian Edwards, the Wiltshire Museum curator, found it at auction in 2023. That was the first example that has ever been seen.”

He added that this version stands out for its size and clarity. “This version is the largest that is known and is the highest resolution. So there is no higher resolution of this portrait out there. So it’s exceptionally rare. There are lots of bids, lots of interest,” he continued.

Ahead of the auction, Denham told BBC News that “there has been a lot of interest from collectors in America and around the world.”

Discovery by a Dealer

Fine art dealer and consultant Tim Williams was the person who recognized the value of the print. He later described the final price as an “extraordinary result.”

“I watched it online and the final bidding seemed to be between a phone bidder vs internet. Clearly, they both really wanted it, and I’m delighted to have been a footnote in the social history of that remarkable photograph,” he added.

Williams discovered the print after Denham sent him a draft version of the auction catalogue. The photograph was listed among vintage and interior items. “I went through the draft of the catalogue and I immediately spotted that photograph,” Williams told LedZepNews earlier this month. “I said ‘Leo, this is the image from the cover of Led Zeppelin IV, an album I bought when I was 13.’ And being a guitarist as well, Led Zeppelin are one of my favorite bands of all time.”

Research Reveals Rarity

After noticing the image, Williams began researching it. He soon realized that the print was one of the rare surviving originals connected to the album cover. “I thought ‘Oh my god, we found the second version of this original photograph,’” he said.

The print he found measures 60.8 by 44.4 centimeters. By comparison, the original print discovered in 2023 by historian Brian Edwards measured 16.6 by 11.3 centimeters. That makes the newly sold version the largest example known so far.

The seller of the photograph had not known its importance. It was offered for sale by the widow of an antique dealer who has been selling the remaining stock from her late husband’s collection.

Earlier Discoveries and a Growing List

Williams’ find came after Edwards made his own discovery in 2023. Edwards recalled the moment he opened a photo album and saw the image. “I flipped it upright and lo and behold my jaw hit the floor,” Edwards told LedZepNews in 2023. “There was something immediately recognisable about it.”

Edwards later identified the photographer as Ernest Howard Farmer. He also determined that the man pictured was likely a thatcher named Lot Long. Since that first discovery, two more prints have come to light. With the newly sold version, four surviving prints are now known.

The Label on the Back

After Denhams realized the value of the print, staff examined the back of its frame. They found part of a gallery label with handwritten words. The text appears to read “thatcher (Devonshire)” and may also include the words “original photograph.”

The label and the number of prints suggest that the image may once have been more widely circulated. Williams reflected on this mystery. “Now we know there are four of them and there must have been a fifth one that Robert Plant found in the antique shop,” he said, “why was this image almost widely disseminated in the nineteenth century?”

He also noted how the photograph faded from public view before becoming famous again. “This image must have completely fallen out of cultural significance until it was picked up by Robert Plant and put on the front of Led Zeppelin IV, which is quite an extraordinary story really,” he added.