Jerry Garcia's Travis Bean guitar has sold at the top of Julien's Auctions' Icons & Idols 2013: Rock n' Roll auction, held on December 6 in Beverly Hills.
 Garcia played the guitar at 69 Grateful Dead concerts in 1977 |
The sale offered a line-up of top quality music memorabilia, with the Grateful Dead singer's guitar selling for $238,700. The band's legions of dedicated "Dead Head" fans ensure that Garcia memorabilia, particularly his guitars, see high prices at auction.
An almost identical Travis Bean guitar played by Jerry Garcia will sell at Bonhams on December 18.
 The bass is the only example with a link to McCartney on the market, but may never have been played by the Beatle |
The second highest bids of the sale were seen by one of Paul McCartney's trademark violin-shaped bass guitars, which was made especially for him in 1964. One of only three owned by the star while the Beatles were still together, it sold for $201,800, just above the $200,000 high estimate.
Elvis memorabilia proved popular in the sale, with a 1972 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine driven by The King in the early 1970s selling for $96,000 - a 20% increase on its $60,000-80,000 estimate.
 These are the only known pair of blue suede shoes worn by Elvis |
The limousine was followed by Elvis' own blue suede shoes, made famous by his cover of Carl Perkins' rock and roll standard. Gifted to Elvis' friend Joe Esposito following his return from the US army, the shoes sold within estimate for $76,800.
It was an important weekend for music memorabilia sales. Read our report on the record breaking auction of Bob Dylan's Newport guitar at Christie's.
See our huge range of music memorabilia for sale.
