Grateful Dead, Grateful Dead

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Grateful Dead

Details

Grateful Dead
A rare and important first printing concert poster Grateful Dead, Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 16th - 17th September 1966, (FD 26), more commonly known as the Skull and Roses, designed by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley
20x14¼in. (50.6x36cm.)

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Lot Essay

This poster marks the first use of the 'Skull and Roses' motif which became so closely associated with the Grateful Dead and remains one of the most famous and instantly recognisable images associated with any band in the history of rock & roll. The central skeleton and roses image was taken from an illustration by Edmund Joseph Sullivan for a 1913 edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, discovered by artists Mouse and Kelley when searching for inspiration in the San Francisco public library.

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