Premium pages left without account:

Auction archive: Lot number 30

Bob Thomas | Steal Your Face logo, printed by Thomas and given to Ram Rod

Estimate
US$6,000 - US$8,000
Price realised:
US$30,240
Auction archive: Lot number 30

Bob Thomas | Steal Your Face logo, printed by Thomas and given to Ram Rod

Estimate
US$6,000 - US$8,000
Price realised:
US$30,240
Beschreibung:

Property of Strider Shurtliff Bob ThomasSteal Your Face wood block print, signed and numbered Color print (16.375 x 13.5’’). Large woodblock print of the Steal Your Face logo in red, blue, and black at center, numbered and signed “Test Block. Proof No. 11 of 50, from the original design by myself, 1969 | To Ram Rod, my good old friend, Thank you | for all the good times. Robert D. Thomas”; slight ink smudge to lower right of woodcut from printing. Matted and framed; not examined out of frame. Steal Your Face woodblock print, given to Ram Rod Bob Thomas first came into contact with the Dead while working as Owsley “Bear” Stanley’s lab assistant, synthesizing LSD. Thomas was a painter who worked in numerous styles, and was responsible for creating one of the most iconic images in the world: the Dead’s Steal Your Face logo. The impetus for the logo originally came from an issue while touring: “With all of the bands using more or less identical road caes, Bear had concluded that a simple, easily identified logo would be useful. He had envisioned a simple symbol that was a bolt of lightning in a red and blue circle with a white border, but … Bob Thomas delivered a more refined rendering in which a skull, the forehead cleaved by a lightning bolt, would fill a circle. The bolt had thirteen points, as in the number of stripes in the U.S. flag, and its colors were red, white, and blue” (McNally, 337). The image would go on to become an indispensable piece of Grateful Dead iconography, recognized as synonymous with the band around the world. While it was known by fans from their road cases and art for several years, it was immortalized when it was used for the cover of the 1976 live double album Steal Your Face. From then on, the image itself was known as “Steal Your Face” or, affectionately, “Stealie.” REFERENCEMcNally, Dennis. A Long Strange Trip. New York: Broadway Books, 2002

Auction archive: Lot number 30
Auction:
Datum:
7 Oct 2021 - 14 Oct 2021
Auction house:
Sotheby's
New York
Beschreibung:

Property of Strider Shurtliff Bob ThomasSteal Your Face wood block print, signed and numbered Color print (16.375 x 13.5’’). Large woodblock print of the Steal Your Face logo in red, blue, and black at center, numbered and signed “Test Block. Proof No. 11 of 50, from the original design by myself, 1969 | To Ram Rod, my good old friend, Thank you | for all the good times. Robert D. Thomas”; slight ink smudge to lower right of woodcut from printing. Matted and framed; not examined out of frame. Steal Your Face woodblock print, given to Ram Rod Bob Thomas first came into contact with the Dead while working as Owsley “Bear” Stanley’s lab assistant, synthesizing LSD. Thomas was a painter who worked in numerous styles, and was responsible for creating one of the most iconic images in the world: the Dead’s Steal Your Face logo. The impetus for the logo originally came from an issue while touring: “With all of the bands using more or less identical road caes, Bear had concluded that a simple, easily identified logo would be useful. He had envisioned a simple symbol that was a bolt of lightning in a red and blue circle with a white border, but … Bob Thomas delivered a more refined rendering in which a skull, the forehead cleaved by a lightning bolt, would fill a circle. The bolt had thirteen points, as in the number of stripes in the U.S. flag, and its colors were red, white, and blue” (McNally, 337). The image would go on to become an indispensable piece of Grateful Dead iconography, recognized as synonymous with the band around the world. While it was known by fans from their road cases and art for several years, it was immortalized when it was used for the cover of the 1976 live double album Steal Your Face. From then on, the image itself was known as “Steal Your Face” or, affectionately, “Stealie.” REFERENCEMcNally, Dennis. A Long Strange Trip. New York: Broadway Books, 2002

Auction archive: Lot number 30
Auction:
Datum:
7 Oct 2021 - 14 Oct 2021
Auction house:
Sotheby's
New York
Try LotSearch

Try LotSearch and its premium features for 7 days - without any costs!

  • Search lots and bid
  • Price database and artist analysis
  • Alerts for your searches
Create an alert now!

Be notified automatically about new items in upcoming auctions.

Create an alert