In recent times, when Banksy collectibles were getting more and more expensive, this book with it's very early commissioned Cover Artwork by Banksy is getting more and more sought after as well. But many collectors don't know, how to find the "right" edition or don't even know, when this Banksy Cover Art was published first.

There are online informations about this book, which suggest that this book with Banksy Cover was first printed in 1989. This would mean that this would be the earliest Cover Artwork by Banksy. At least I can tell you that this is not the truth. Even though the only imprint-information about the publication also suggest that it was published in 1989. The reason for this missing "real" publication date this cover by Penguin Books is caused by the fact, that it still contains the same type as when it was first published. And this first publication with similar type was actually released in 1989, but with an alternate Cover! I have attatched pictures of the first published versions by HarperCollins 1989 and Penguin Books 1990.

Maybe you'll ask now, why I can be sure about this. Well, to prove this information it's necessary to get into the history of Penguin Book. The reason why artists like Banksy were commissioned to create book covers for Penguin was a single person. Penguin's art director John Hamilton. He was the one who thought it's necessary to book young artists for the cover designs to give Penguin a more "modern" touch. And that's why he finally booked artists like Banksy,  Oliver Hibert and others.
But in 1990 when the first Penguin Edition of "And The Ass Saw The Angel" was published, John Hamilton wasn't the art drector of Penguin yet. He started his work in 1997. Corresponding to this it's not possible, that John Hamilton commissioned this cover design to Banksy in 1990. You can read all facts about this in an article including a John Hamilton interviev published by Design Week, written by Aimée Mclaughlin in 2018 (Link to this article) Meanwhile John Hamilton has passed away in 2019. This is what he said about this cover :

 
[...DesignWeek: Do you have any favourite covers?
John Hamilton: I find it so difficult to pick a favourite because it’s been a love affair for 20 years, but my favourite will always be Banksy’s design for And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave. Partly because I commissioned Banksy 15 years ago when hardly anybody had heard of him, and he doesn’t do commercial work as such. On that cover the Penguin logo is actually breathing fire, which is real bastardisation here. I didn’t tell anybody and got them all to sign it off. I’ve still got the original letter from Banksy saying “John, how about trying this for a laugh?” and to this day the design still stands. It was quite nice because I felt like we were being challenging, and probably a bit childish, but we were trying to push things and do them differently...] Source: DesignWeek, Aimée Mclaughlin

As there was no other publication of this book in the years between 1997-2001, we have to conclude, that the earliest possible date for Banksy to design the cover for this book was 2001, when it was published again with alternate (Banksy) cover by Penguin. 

Now we know, that this early Banksy cover artwork was published in 2001 the first time. But even after this conclusion it's not easy to decide which edition you own or you should search for if you want to receive the "First Banksy Cover Edition" of this. I will tell you, how you can distinguish the different prints of this book here:

Learn to distinguish the "And The Ass Saw The Angel" Editions 

For a collector it's always the most satisfying situation to find the "First Press" of books for his collection. But sometimes it's not easy to find out, which edition you have to search for, to get the "First Press". I have already mentioned which edition of "And The Ass Saw The Angel" the first one with Banksy Cover Artwork was. It is the Penguin 2001 press. But maybe you have already noticed, that there are even different editions of this 2001 press around. The most obvious fact to realize this is if you'll have a look to the rear cover of this book. There you'll find the price recommondation right below the barcode. If you have several books to compare you'll see, that some of these were sold for £ 5.99 and others for 
£ 6.99 or £ 7.99. I have taken a photo of these three different price tags:

Obviously these three different rear covers are not part of the same Print Run. And that's at least the important fact: Even if all three book are the same "First Banky Cover" Edition, this does not mean that all these are the same Print Run! The "real" FIRST PRESS is ONLY the FIRST PRINT RUN of the FIRST EDITION!!

But even if you own one of the earliest prints with £ 5.99 price tag it's not automatically said, that this is the first print run. To be sure which print run you hold you have to take a look for the imprint of the book. There you'll find the specification which print run your copy was. Naturally the first print run is specified with a small "1" below the publication date. I have attatched pictures of two different print runs below (1st and 3rd):

So, if you want to get hold of the "real" first print run of the first Banksy Cover edition your book needs a price tag with £ 5.99 on the rear cover and the small "1" written in the imprint of the book. All other prints are re-presses of this first run and at least not the first press most collectors are searching for. Maybe this gives you an idea, why many of this books vary a lot in it's actuall price. For the books I offer in my Shop I will always give the information which print run it is!