Richard Burton “The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner” etc ARGO LP RG41 Lovely+Rare
£
18
$
24
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Description
Here is a very fine copy of a 1954 recording by Richard Burton, Robert Hardy and John Neville reading “The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner” ARGO LP RG41. It is THE DEFINITIVE READING of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's classic poem and was released as part of the Argo series “The Anthology Of Spoken Poetry”.
Also included on this disc are Coleridge's haunting poems “Xanadu” (Not Jeff Lynne’s effort! It’s the one that goes “In Xanadu, did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree.. etc”) and “Frost at Midnight” read by Burton.
The COVER features a fine illustration by the artist Arthur Wragg, who illustrated many Argo sleeves, and was a good old leftie socially-committed artist who died in 1976. He was a fine fellow.
Burton is on fine form, blustering and Burton-ing. There’ll never be another.
The sleeve notes were written by Harley J. Usill whoever he might be.
The record has the original early pale blue background Argo labels.
The disc is in LOVELY condition, amazing for its age, and the sleeve is the THIN CARD type that Argo/Decca used in the early days. Because of this, it’s suffered a VERY SLIGHT creasing and there is an invisibly repaired tiny rip on the open edge front, and a visible tiny rip on the open edge back (see close-up photo). To be fair, these thin sleeves were so FRAGILE, it’s a miracle that everything’s as good as it is. Wragg’s fine art-work is un-affected.
The LP looks as good as, or better than, the one in the Richard Burton Museum.
It is a monumentally wonderful and desirable record.
This disc is part of TWO spoken-word collections that I somehow got hold of back in the mists of time.
They contain everything from “Round The Horne” to Chaucer in Old English, and it’s worth looking in my listings for other goodies.
Using "Record Collector" magazine's guide, I would conservatively rate this disc as in Ex condition with the very fragile sleeve a good healthy VG++ at least (see note above).
The record in the photograph is the actual record you will get, securely posted in a stiffened recycled envelope If you buy any other records off me, I'll do a deal on postage to save you a few bob.
PAYPAL only Please.
NO OVERSEAS bidders please.
And NO OVERSEAS bidders using UK addresses please.
This is because I want my buyers to be happy bunnies. If there is a problem, I like to sort it out personally.
I can't do this if you're thousands of miles away.
Thanks for looking!
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