Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite: the poster that inspired The Beatles
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Welcome to Kite. We create fascinating, exclusive art prints in open and limited editions
Starting with our famous reproduction of John Lennon’s Victorian circus poster that inspired The Beatles’ Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!, we go to extraordinary lengths to produce beautiful, museum-quality art that lasts a lifetime.
From our studio in London, England we ship prints all over the world and the people who buy our work love what we make.
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite: A Limited Edition Print
In 1967 John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote a song called Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! for the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band!. The inspiration – and many of the lyrics – came from a letterpress-printed circus poster from 1843 that Lennon had bought in an antiques shop.
We have lovingly recreated that poster, using antique wooden and metal type as well as specially-commissioned wood engravings. Every print is hand-pulled on a Victorian press and individually numbered.
See the printStephen Hawking's Time Travellers Invitation
Professor Stephen Hawking devised an ingeniously simple experiment to determine whether time travel into the past was possible. The success of the experiment entirely depends on his invitation being seen by time travellers.
To tie in with this experiment, and with Professor Hawking's approval, we have created this poster printed in two letterpress limited editions and an open edition. It was meticulously assembled using antique wooden and metal type. Purchasing this print may help to prove that time travel is possible!
See the print
Time Traveller's Invitation on display at the Science Museum
One of the two Time Traveller’s Invitation prints given to Stephen Hawking in 2013 is currently on display at London’s Science Museum
Last posting dates for Christmas 2021
Make sure that you leave enough time for your perfect Christmas gifts from Kite to reach you. Here's our best advice…
Who won our September prize draw?
At the beginning of September we entered all our mailing list subscribers into a draw and pulled out a name at random. And our winner is Brian Pascale from Silver Spring, MD.
Announcing the winner of our February 2021 Prize Draw
We conducted our regular prize draw for all Kite newsletter subscribers at the beginning of February and our randomly-selected winner this time is Kristen Rutherford from Edmonton, Alberta in Canada.
