BASIC INFORMATION
as given by the manufacturer
with some words made bold by me:

Riding Some Kind Of Unusual Skull Sleigh, named after a painting the artist completed in 1987, provides an opportunity to own one of his original, signed color etchings (see remark). Executed on paper and cataloged as Untitled (Self-Portrait), the work measures 6 5/8" x 9 1/2". Van Vliet produced only 1,500 copies of the piece, one for each individually numbered copy of this Artist Ink Edition. A deluxe 9 1/4" x 12 3/4" x 2 3/4" slipcase carefully houses the etching as well as two museum-quality books, a CD, and a DVD.

The first book, entitled Riding Some Kind Of Unusual Skull Sleigh (88 pages), is a monograph of sorts, containing an essay by art historian Ben Watson and full-color reproductions of 60 paintings and drawings, some of them previously unpublished.

riding some kind of unusual skull sleigh - 1986/7 - oil on canvas - 122 x 147 cm

The second book, entitled Splinters (96 pages), features portrait photos of the artist by Anton Corbijn, along with a selection of personal archival material supplied by Don and [his wife] Jan Van Vliet - including family snapshots, newspaperclippings, drawings and sketches. None of this material has been seen by the public before.

The cd features the artist reading 11 previously unreleased spoken-word pieces (also reprinted in the Splinters book). Spanning 1977-1999, these readings have been personally selected by Don and Jan Van Vliet.

The dvd features Some YoYo Stuff, a 1994 filmed observation by Anton Corbijn.

more information, such as the astronomical price of the set and samples from the content,
can be found at the rhino handmade website, the only place where you can buy this luxurious box

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NOTES and THOUGHTS
by average customer teejo:

colour etching UNTITLED self portrait

two remarkable aspects of the eye-catcher of the set are: 1) it's an etching; 2) it's a self portrait. usually van vliet's works are once-only products, and 'repeatable' outings are rare. which also means copies of the 'mass productions' are cheaper than the one-off commodities. in art business the price of the products also is set by the status of the artist, that is the skill and originality the experts think it has. as i don't know the rank don has reached, i have no idea what the worth of this etching is if it would be available separately....

apart from the financial discussion, there is the quite amazing fact that this piece of art is a self-portrait. because van vliet always pictured every person and animal that happened to enter his eye radar, but he rarely looked into the mirror (perhaps he didn't like himself?). for that reason, this exceptional portrait is something to take notice of. but, er..., although i wonder what he looks like today: what happened to his hair and moustache?


don van vliet by don van vliet
untitled etching (self portrait) - year unknown

book RIDING SOME KIND OF UNUSUAL SKULL SLEIGH

first of all, it would have been better if the editors of this set had opted for a less confusing (overall) title. because there already existed a publication with exactly the same title: bill bamberger's vision on the artistic views of both captain beefheart and don van vliet.

to that, the repros of his fine arts work are a repeat too. although 'some of them [are] previously unpublished', the majority of the shown works has been printed before, in particular in the book 'stand up to be discontinued' (and at a bigger size!). as that 'catalogue' from 1993 included fresh photos by anton corbijn and a few beefheart features from old papers, it even offered a wider range of information than the current publication.

so, this museum-quality hardcover just appears to be no news in a different setting....

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