Jamie Reid | Original collage, 'I HATE FRENCH COOKING', autumn 1976

Jamie Reid

Original collage

(133 x 116mm.), framed, some staining

This collage was used as the 'gone for lunch' sign for the Glitterbest office, McLaren's Oxford Street punk HQ at Dryden Chambers where Reid worked from the autumn of 1976. Incorporating the French figure of Liberty holding a handwritten banner that reads, 'I HATE FRENCH COOKING.', the collage recalls the use of French revolutionary symbolism by the Situationists from the late 1950 to the early 1970s. The slogan 'I Hate French Cooking' was also used on the page of the Anarchy fanzine (lot no. 17) that featured photographs of the band's first concerts abroad on 3 and 5 September 1976 at the Club du Châlet du Lac in Paris - on that page the slogan is written by Johnny Rotten. The collage was owned originally by Sophie Richmond, who was McLaren's secretary and had been Reid's partner through the 1970s.