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Madison Square Garden's own Dead history got the King Kong treatment: a giant ape works over MSG the way the original scaled the Empire State Building, moved a few blocks over and handed to a New York crowd that took the joke as a compliment.Bright yellow shirt, the Kong-and-Garden artwork centered on the chest, Grateful Dead lettered above in outline type. Anvil tag, size L.Please see photos for the full graphic and any wear; color is still strong.Size L · Good As with any vintage garment, please expect minor signs of age even in high-grade pieces — see photos for a full visual record.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

$200-500

$500+

Under $200

1988 Grateful Dead Madison Square Garden T-Shirt — King Kong, Size L

Twenty-four vintage Grateful Dead t-shirts — tour shirts, city-specific one-offs, tie-dyes, a local-crew-only shirt never sold to the public, and a design the band pulled and destroyed before it ever reached a show.This collection documents the remarkable growth and development of the Dead's scene as they emerged from the 1970s and made the road their home in the 1980s, claiming all America as their stage. Tour shirts are art, history, and more, talismens&nbsp;of how the band turned every concert into a work of art. This collection traces how Dead t-shirts came to be one of the most artistic and evocative signs of the band's identity, art that reminds us all of the transformative nature of the Grateful Dead. This auction offers a selection of shirts never collected together in this condition and range.Every lot is individually photographed front, back, and tag, with condition called out honestly in each listing — vintage pieces are graded on their own terms, and high-grade doesn't mean flawless. See each item's photos for the full visual record.No reserve. Every lot opens at $49.95.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

Rick Griffin drew some of the Dead's most recognized artwork, including the 1969 Aoxomoxoa album cover, and stayed closely identified with the band until his death in 1991. This piece pairs his Minuteman image, a skull draped in an American flag, sword in hand, with "Twenty Years So Far", marking two decades since the band's 1965 start.The back reads "Local Crew" in plain block type. This wasn't sold at the merch table; it was made for the people working the tour, which makes surviving copies harder to find than the fan-facing version of the same design.Multiple small stains are visible on the shirt, pictured for reference; the graphic and lettering are otherwise intact.Size XL · Good · Local crew shirt, not sold to the public.As with any vintage garment, please expect minor signs of age even in high-grade pieces — see photos for a full visual record.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

1985 Grateful Dead Local Crew T-Shirt — Rick Griffin Minuteman, Size XL

The band's Chinese New Year run at Oakland's Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium, February 18-20, 1985, became an annual kickoff to the touring year, this one landing in the Year of the Ox and marking the Dead's 20th year as a band. A Chinese orchestra opened the shows, and a dragon dance wound through the crowd during Drums.The design keeps it simple: a blue ox rendered on a black panel, Grateful Dead lettered beside it. Long sleeve, blue body.There are stains on one sleeve, pictured for reference; the graphic itself is unaffected.Size M · Fair · Long sleeve.As with any vintage garment, please expect minor signs of age even in high-grade pieces — see photos for a full visual record.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

1985 Grateful Dead Chinese New Year Run T-Shirt — Year of the Ox, Size M

The walking, sneaker-footed lightning bolt on the front is the Dead's own riff on Reddy Kilowatt, the cartoon mascot electric utilities started using in 1926 to market electricity as safe and friendly. Inside the band, Reddy Kilowatt was also Phil Lesh's own nickname, earned for his restless, high-voltage energy, according to Dead biographer Dennis McNally. Putting him on a 20th-anniversary tour shirt, flanked by the "65" and "85" on the front, reads as an inside joke made public.Spring Tour 1985 was a season of theaters and small arenas rather than the football stadiums that came later, and the back maps that spring's Northeast leg inside a star-and-stripes emblem, with a Steal Your Face marking the tour's start.Blue long-sleeve tour shirts from this run turn up rarely and almost always washed thin. This one keeps its shape: the blue is still saturated, the print is unbroken, and the collar and cuffs have their original form.If you are building an eighties tour set, the long sleeves are the pieces that usually stay missing.Size M · Mint · Long sleeve.As with any vintage garment, please expect minor signs of age even in high-grade pieces — see photos for a full visual record.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

1985 Grateful Dead Spring Tour Long Sleeve T-Shirt — Reddy Kilowatt, Size M

A Fall/Winter 1985 run that swung from Florida up the East Coast and back out to California: Tampa, Rochester, Miami, East Rutherford, Columbia, Richmond, Worcester, Oakland, Long Beach, and Atlanta, all ten stops listed on the back.The front carries an early version of the skull-in-roses image inside a red and blue circle, raglan-style with black sleeves against a natural body. The Knits tag, size S.Print and color are sharp on both sides.Size S · Mint · Raglan sleeves.As with any vintage garment, please expect minor signs of age even in high-grade pieces — see photos for a full visual record.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

1985 Grateful Dead Fall/Winter Tour T-Shirt, Size S

New York City, September 1988: nine dates at Madison Square Garden, September 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, and 24, all printed on the back inside the same purple tie-dye burst as the front.The front centers a torch-bearing, star-crowned figure in a triangular frame, roses at either side, a Statue of Liberty stand-in rendered in the band's own house style rather than a literal likeness.Fruit of the Loom tag, dye still vivid with a clean radial pattern.Size L · Mint · Tie-dye.As with any vintage garment, please expect minor signs of age even in high-grade pieces — see photos for a full visual record.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

1988 Grateful Dead New York City Tie-Dye T-Shirt — Statue of Liberty, Size L

A Fall Tour 1988 shirt built around a jester's skull, bold graffiti-style lettering carrying the tour name and date worked directly into the design rather than listed separately underneath.Black shirt, bold color separation in red, yellow, and blue against the black ground.Hanes Beefy-T, graphic sharp with no cracking.Size L · Mint.As with any vintage garment, please expect minor signs of age even in high-grade pieces — see photos for a full visual record.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

1988 Grateful Dead Fall Tour T-Shirt — Jester Skull, Size L

Rick Griffin's artwork for the band's planned run through Miami, St. Petersburg, New Orleans, Houston, and Dallas paired the tour's crossed-sabers-and-skull imagery with a Confederate battle flag background.Before the shirts reached a single show, the band pulled the design and had the run destroyed rather than sell an image built on the Confederate flag to their own audience. Very few copies escaped that recall. It's a strange kind of collectible: not valuable because the band got something right, but because they caught themselves getting something wrong and acted on it immediately, not after the fact.Rick Griffin's daughter, Flaven Griffin-Clayton, has said her father grew up on pirate movies, old Westerns, and Civil War pictures where the Confederate flag stood in as visual shorthand for "the South" — the same reflex he used elsewhere in his work, a surfer for California, King Kong for New York. By her account he likely reached for it as the nearest symbol at hand for a Southern tour shirt, without thinking through what it represented, and she has said the family is glad it never went into circulation.Hanes Beefy-T, full color intact front and back.Size L · Mint · Withdrawn design, rare survivor.As with any vintage garment, please expect minor signs of age even in high-grade pieces — see photos for a full visual record.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

1988 Grateful Dead Southern Tour T-Shirt — Rick Griffin, Size L

The Wall of Sound was the band's own PA system for the 1974 tour, hundreds of speakers stacked behind the stage so the music reached the crowd without a delay tower in front of them. It cost a fortune to move and was retired after that tour, but it stayed the reference point for what the Dead were willing to try.The "XXV" on the back places this shirt to 1990, the band's 25th anniversary, looking back at the Wall rather than being sold at the 1974 shows themselves. The Oneita tag, pre-shrunk cotton, made in USA, size M (38-40), fits that dating.There's a small hole at the underarm seam where the sleeve meets the body, pictured for reference; the front and back graphics are otherwise clean.Size M · Good As with any vintage garment, please expect minor signs of age even in high-grade pieces — see photos for a full visual record.Domestic shipping is $20 per item. International shipping will be calculated and invoiced separately after the auction closes.

1988 Grateful Dead Madison Square Garden T-Shirt — King Kong, Size L

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