Grateful Dead memorabilia collection to sell

A selection of rare Grateful Dead memorabilia will cross the block at Stremmel Auctions. 

The online sale closes on December 9. 

All of the pieces are consigned from the collection of Jesse Kant, widow of the band’s lawyer Hal.

Hal Kant (1931-2008) collected most of them during his 35 years with the band.

Grateful Dead Banner

The banners were used in the Dead's 1989 stage shows 

The highlights will be a set of eight stage banners by the Polish artist Jan Sawka (1946-2012) that adorned the stage during the Dead’s 1989 25th Anniversary Tour.

Each will be offered as a single lot, with a valuation of $100,000-125,000.

Guitarist Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) personally commissioned Sawka to produce the enormous hangings (one measures 33 feet in length.

There’s a selection of illustrations and prints by Garcia himself, the majority of which are artist’s proofs, valued between $3,000 and $6,000.

Garcia had studied at the San Francisco Institute of Art as a teenager under the celebrated counterculture figure Wally Hedrick.

A dried rose from Garcia’s 1994 wedding to film director Deborah Koons will also feature. 

There’s no estimate available for this last piece, but it could well secure a solid result given the Dead’s use of roses as a motif.

The surviving members of the band played their final show in Chicago on July 5, 2015, bringing one of the longest running musical partnerships in history to an end.

The band maintains a large and hugely devoted fan base, many followed them around the US for almost half a century.

As a result, memorabilia tends to perform extremely well at auction. Garcia’s legendary Wolf guitar was a recent example, achieving $3.2m in a charity auction over the summer.

We have some amazing music memorabilia for sale, why not take a look?

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