AUCTION - FD 26 - Grateful Dead SKELETON & ROSES - 1st Print - Mouse SIGNED - Avalon Poster - Excellent
AUCTION - FD 26 - Grateful Dead SKELETON & ROSES - 1st Print - Mouse SIGNED - Avalon Poster - Excellent
Offered here is one of the most highly sought-after original first printing posters in the world of psychedelic art collecting. It is the 26th and most famous image in the Family Dog series and is known as Skeleton & Roses. It features the Grateful Dead and Oxford Circle (precursor to Blue Cheer) playing the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco on Sept. 16-17, 1966. The British book illustrator E.J. Sullivan came up with the image of the skeleton, which artists Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley colored and added lettering to for this poster. It was also used for a Grateful Dead album cover in 1971. The original first printing poster was printed on vellum and is approximately 14” x 20”. The words Bindweed Press San Francisco are directly below the word “Ballroom” at the lower right of the poster. It is referred to as FD-26-OP-1 in Eric King’s Guide to Psychedelic Posters. Due to its popularity, there were several authorized reprints of FD 26 and a number of counterfeit versions.
Most copies of this poster were displayed on walls, telephone polls & store windows around the time of the concerts and thereafter. As a result, most copies have some issues. This poster was signed by Stanley Mouse in pencil in the lower left. The offered copy is in excellent condition, it appears near mint minus and has had restoration work in the four corners and bottom center to repair multiple pinholes The colors are still well saturated. Here is your chance to own a first printing of what is perhaps one of the most iconic psychedelic poster images from the 1960s.
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