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Grateful Dead T-Shirt from 1967 Sells for Nearly $18,000

Sale breaks the record for most expensive vintage rock shirt sold at auction.

Published

3 years ago

October 25, 2021

Screen Printing Staff

Grateful Dead T-Shirt from 1967 Sells for Nearly $18,000

Credit: Southeby’s

If you think you might have any vintage rock band T-shirts stuffed away in the attic, now’s a good time to check.

An original Grateful Dead T-shirt from 1967 sold for $17,640 through Sotheby’s on Oct. 15, setting a new record for the most expensive vintage rock shirt sold at auction, Datebook writes.

The souvenir, the article says, is believed to be among the first shirts mass-produced by the band, although in very limited quantities. It was previously in possession of Dan Healy, an audio engineer who worked with the band. Here’s the description of the shirt provided by Southeby’s:

Designed by the Hells Angel, Merry Prankster, and graphic artist Allan “Gut” Terk, a key figure in California counterculture in the 1960’s. Friends with Ken Kesey, he was the painter of the Pranksters’ “Further” bus in 1964 and designed the Acid Test Graduation posters. By 1967, through his work for the Dead, he was acclaimed in the Bay Area music scene for his t-shirt and poster art.

Another shirt from Healy’s collection bearing the band’s “Steal Your Face Logo” sold for $15,120 in the same auction, making it the second-most expensive vintage rock shirt ever sold.

Read more at Datebook.

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