Specialist Valuer for Vintage vinyl and HiFi here at 1818 Auctioneers introduces a very special lot that’s featured in our second sale of the year from this well-followed department:
“I am thrilled to be presenting for sale our second copy of the mythical Courtyard Music Group album, just our way of saying hello, here at 1818 Auctioneers. This copy is a globetrotter, having been privately consigned from the USA and safely making its way for sale here in Cumbria.
“It is kind of local in that it was recorded just over the Scottish Borders in a ‘free’ school – so not that far from 1818 Auctioneers in the scheme of things, and to add to the story, it was pressed at the Deroy studios down in Carnforth (that’s a whole story in itself and one we will revisit another day). It is a very ‘handmade’ affair with some lovely inserts, a silkscreen dragon, and beautiful lyric sheets with exceptional calligraphy, and a lino-printed sleeve, which gives the whole school project thing (which, for all intents and purposes, it was) a real lo-fi, bespoke, crafted/folk-art feel.
“But what about the music, you say? Head to YouTube specifically for the track ‘The Magician‘, it builds with percussion and woodwind and goes into an almost psychedelic jam that sounded like it was recorded live in one take – 13 minutes of pure bliss recorded by school children under the not-so-watchful eye of their woodwork teacher (not a music teacher in sight). On paper, it shouldn’t really work, but in reality, it is a thing of beauty.
“I was actually in the running during bidding on the last copy we offered at auction in 2017, but I lost my nerve as it headed into four figures, which in retrospect wasn’t a bad thing! An official reissue was done in 2015; a fine job they did on it, too. All that did was push up the price of the original, and the reissue is now valued in three figures.
“Acid folk and psychedelia are terms associated with this record, but it runs deeper than that in my opinion. Recorded in semi-isolation at Kilquhanity House School in Galloway, southern Scotland (a free school founded and run by John Aitkenhead and his wife, Morag: it was a boarding school with a few day-kids), the album has a real, hard-to-pinpoint detachment. Only 100 were ever pressed (this has been confirmed in recent years), and I don’t think these children would have heard bands like the Trees and Pentangle; it just feels like it has emerged organically and demands your attention.
“If this sounds like your thing, the album is currently for sale (Lot 601) in our second Vinyl and Hi-Fi auction of 2026 with an array of images for your perusal. Estimate £800-1200.
