Artwork
The cover of the 1968 album shown here, was created by the illustrator and author John Vernon Lord who coincidentally appears to share the same name as the band's keyboard player, Jon Lord. The Book of Taliesyn was the only record cover John Vernon Lord ever designed and, according to the artist's recent retrospective, the original artwork was never returned.
The brief from the artist's agent is detailed in Drawing upon Drawing as follows:
"The agent gave me the title saying that the art director wanted a 'fantasy Arthurian touch' and to include hand lettering for the title and the musicians' names. I mainly drew from The Book of Taliesin, which is a collection of poems, said to be written by the sixth century Welsh bard Taliesin."
The fee for the job was £30 (minus 25% for the agent). John Vernon Lord was, until recently, Professor of Illustration at the University of Brighton.
Read more about this topic: The Book Of Taliesyn