An originalGrateful DeadT-shirt from 1967sold for$17,640through Sotheby’s on Friday, Oct. 15, breaking the record for the most expensive vintage rock shirt sold at auction.
Designed byHells Angel and graphic artistAllan “Gut” Terk, the simple yellow tee sold for nearly twice as much as a Led Zeppelin shirt from that band’s 1979 concerts at Knebworth, which previously held the record for selling for$10,000in an eBay auction in 2011.
After expenses and fees, auction winner Bo Bushnell paid a total of $19,315.80 for the Grateful Dead souvenir, which was listed in excellent condition among theSotheby’s lot“From the Vault: Property From the Grateful Dead and Friends.” It is believed to be among the first shirts mass-produced by the band, although in incredibly limited quantities.
The T-shirt was previously in possession ofDan Healy, an audio engineer who worked with the Dead, according toDefunkd, the vintage T-shirt site that tracked the sale.
Bushnell operates theOutlaw Archivepage on Instagram, whichdocuments 1960s motorcycle club artifacts and ephemera. After the acquisition of the shirt, the account said, “We just did this to keep the memory of Gut ‘Terk’ alive and to keep his history under one roof.”
Another shirt from Healy’s collection alsosold for $15,120in the same auction, becoming the second most expensive vintage rock shirt ever sold. That one is from a spring1977 tour stop at Cornell University and features the Dead’s signature “Steal Your Face” logo, depicting the top of a skull with a lightning bolt running through it.
On Tuesday, Oct. 19, a Fillmore West jersey that was worn onstage by the band’s organistRon “Pigpen” McKernanat the Sound Storm Festival in Wisconsin in 1970 sold for$21,420.
TheSotheby’s salefeatures mostly memorabilia from the touring eras of therenowned Bay Area bandfrom the 1970s through the 1990s, consigned from Grateful Dead Productions and their inner circle.
Among the items are shirts and jumpsuits worn by the band members onstage, vintage high-end guitars and other instruments used by various Dead players, and surviving components from the band’s giant three-story public address system from 1974 known as the Wall of Sound.
The vintage tour T-shirts were estimated to go for $350 to $700.
