FD-26 Grateful Dead 1966 "Skeleton & Roses" First-Printing Avalon Concert Poster Graded 9.8. ...

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A TRUE SURVIVOR: STRAIGHT FROM THE HAIGHT TO HERITAGE

FD-26 Grateful Dead 1966 "Skeleton & Roses" First-Printing Avalon Concert Poster Graded 9.8. Heritage Auctions is proud to present the crown jewel of the Ben Bierman Carmel Street Collection, first introduced last auction: An original summer-of-1966 first printing of the revered Grateful Dead "Skeleton & Roses" FD-26 San Francisco Family Dog concert poster, graded to the high heavens of 9.8 Near Mint/Mint by CGC (the Certified Guaranty Company). As most are aware, Heritage holds the world record for this poster with our auction in April 2022 bringing in $137,500, and that was in 9.6. In the two years since, we've enjoyed robust action every time we've been able to offer this poster in a high grade; the hobby just refuses to get tired of it. Just look at it; how could you?

As the whole world knows by now, this poster was printed to advertise two nights of concerts on Friday and Saturday, September 16 & 17, 1966 at the Avalon Ballroom in the city by the bay. The Bindweed Press in S.F. was the printer. Tickets were sold in the city itself, including the Psychedelic Shop in Haight-Ashbury and Discount Records in North Beach, plus hip locations in Sausalito, Berkeley and Menlo Park.

Second printings and reproductions of FD-26 abound, but this is the only printing of this poster done in the summer of 1966 with the one goal of intriguing patrons enough to buy tickets and attend one of the two nights. It's almost a surreal thought to us now, but that's the whole reason this item exists... it was strictly an advertising piece. Any subsequent print run was done for the purpose of making money off the beautiful artwork. But this specimen was printed solely to herd as many people as possible into Chet Helms' second-story Avalon Ballroom. This was a year before the summer of love in San Francisco, when things were still pretty innocent.

How seminal was this time in the Dead's history? Well, just two weeks later their first Warner Bros. recording contract was drawn up. And three weeks after these shows, LSD would become illegal in California... but at this moment, you couldn't be busted for it. Imagine the freedom!

For poster collectors, rock-music fans, pop culture historians, art lovers and just the curious with a good sense of taste, this poster checks every box. The Grateful Dead. San Francisco. The mid-60's. Unforgettable artwork. Legendary graphic artists. Charisma. Colors. Rarity. In a bone-rattling condition of 9.8. What more could one ask for?

This artistic stroke of genius marked the very first appearance of the skeleton & roses iconography in Grateful Dead lore, a legendary motif which still shines brightly 58 years later. Just a month earlier, the Dead's Avalon appearance was advertised on a Family Dog poster (FD-22) by depicting... a stoned Frankenstein. Really?

The story behind Mouse & Kelley's creation is well-known in the psych poster world. But to the uninitiated, Stanley & Alton would often search the shelves of the San Francisco Public Library to get images & ideas they could then build their posters around, with seemingly nothing off-limits. Earlier that summer, they had famously appropriated the image from Zig-Zag wrapping papers to create a popular Family Dog concert poster for Big Brother & the Holding Company and their new lead singer Janis Joplin. What could they come up with next?

They struck gold by discovering a small black & white drawing by British book illustrator E.J. Sullivan. His book The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, first published in 1913, contained several images of skeletons. This particular one, of a skeleton that was picking roses, assembling a wreath and wearing one on its head, really jumped off the page at them. How could it not? What a perfect image for a band called the Grateful Dead!

Also for the uninitiated, "FD-26" means that it was the 26th poster in the series of San Francisco concerts hosted by Family Dog concert promoter Chet Helms, which began in February 1966. The poster is known alternatively as "skeleton & roses" and "skull & roses"; the terms are interchangeable. And the condition will never deteriorate one iota as long as it remains in the classy plastic protective holder placed there by CGC when it was certified and graded. Added note: yes, this remarkable FD-26 specimen has the telltale "band-aid" darker-blue rectangle to the left of the skeleton's crown, as only first printings do.

So why aren't there more first printings of this poster around? The main reason is that print runs were still relatively low in the summer of 1966, with the whole scene having just been birthed a few months earlier. The first Family Dog and Bill Graham posters had appeared only in February, so there was no momentum yet behind saving & collecting these things. They were still being created purely as marketing tools to fill the ballrooms, so surely Bill and Chet felt... "don't print any more than you need."

Another factor is that people weren't habitually saving these things yet in any organized fashion. But in the case of this poster, it was so popular that people around the Bay Area would proudly tack it up on their walls, exposing it to daylight, pinholes and all measure of wear & tear. Sometimes hippies would move from pad to pad, taking this eye candy along with them each time. So most of the first printings found of this poster are in used - even if lovingly - condition. To find one graded in the 9's like this is a collector's dream. Certainly nobody could anticipate that this would be held up as a museum piece half a century later.

And in this poster's case, we have Ben Bierman's parents to thank, for both saving their posters carefully and admonishing little Ben to not pin them up or otherwise damage them. Please see our accompanying Letter of Provenance from Ben to get the charming, full story.

So the lucky winning bidder will have a trophy for their walls that might likely be handed down in their family for generations to come, as a candidate for the best piece of 20th-century psychedelic art ever created - in museum-quality Near Mint/Mint certified condition. Measures 14 1/8" x 19 7/8". From the Ben Bierman Carmel Street Collection. LOP from Ben Bierman, COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information: Mouse & Kelley's sublime psychedelic lettering and gorgeous red & blue coloring sealed the deal, creating a four-color masterpiece that looks better with each passing decade. (The other two colors being black, used for the Grateful Dead's name, and white, used for the skeleton, Family Dog logo and "Avalon.")