vintage motorcycle gang

Description

Where do you even start on this one. Years and years ago I was at the Long Beach Antique Swap and came upon these. The vendor said he was at one time was a local screen printer. He was getting rid of his old frames among other things and he stated on that day that he had already been closed for years at that point. I grilled him a bit and he said some guys came in and asked if they could draw up the images themselves for a run of shirts. He didn't remember specifics but I was pretty floored that I came across something so rare so I bought what I could afford and put them away in a box until now. There were a few more frames but I wasn't made of money then so this is what I picked up. I don't even know why I looked in that box. I'm not a screen printer and there were a hundred screens of all sizes in those random boxes at the back of his space. At that time I was asked to document another club in the Southern California area so I got what they were and how rare it was to even see them. Buying them and taking them home was beyond mind blowing. I'm not even clear on how to explain the rarity of these items. There really is no benchmark for these. I have asked friends in multiple clubs and they say shirts from that era, yes. The actual screens? Good luck finding a comparison. I spoke to a couple older guys I know from this club and their minds were blown as well. In their opinion and mine, no citizen would have drawn these by hand or had them screened. We figured they are from the late 1960's or early 1970's. I'm no expert but I have more knowledge than many in this field due to my being allowed to document the history of another local club but again, I'm no expert. These screens are hand-built, as they were in the early years of screen printing. The inks show age equal to the timeframe we believe they are from. If anything, save the pics from this auction. It's rare to even see this stuff and isn't getting more common. I'll ship them as if I'm shipping rare art, which I believe this is. Also, know what you are buying. If you are reading this, you know what these are and how important items like these are to the history of motorcycling culture.