Bonhams & Butterfields will auction off a number of
items belonging to Jerry Garcia on December 9th as part of an
upcoming charity event. Highlights from the collection are two of Garcia’s
guitars, which are being consigned by Leon Day, former personal chauffeur, to
support the building of a facility devoted to the treatment of autism. "I've been blessed and challenged to
have an almost 19-year-old autistic son,” Day says. “Over the years, autism has
reached epidemic proportions and my hope is to open a center for autism on the
'Big Island'
of Hawaii. I am in the process of raising money for the
center and I'm hoping Jerry's past generosity will help me do this.”
Leon Day made his living driving limousines in the San
Francisco Bay Area from 1980 until 1995.
In February of 1980, he met and drove Garcia from the Dead's San Rafael, CA studios to
the San Francisco
Airport. For the next 15 years, Day would chauffer
Garcia, carrying him to various locations until his death in August of
1995. Over the years, they became close
friends.
The first guitar, a Steinberger headless electric guitar,
circa 1980s (est. $45/50,000) has an iridescent, circular sticker on the back
that Garcia placed there himself and it bears his hand-etched signature. Also included is the instrument's original
black soft-canvas carrying case plus a reprinted color image of Garcia holding
the guitar.
According to Day, "The guitar was known as Garcia's
house or hotel practice guitar. It went
everywhere he did. He'd used this
instrument to record three songs with Ornette Coleman for the album Virgin Beauty."
The second is a Casio PG-380 electric guitar, circa 1980s
(est. $40/45,000). As with the
Steinberger, Garcia has hand-etched his signature on the backside of the
instrument. It comes with its Fender
hard plastic guitar case, the case Garcia used to carry and store the
instrument. The case displays two Grateful
Dead stickers [both from 1988] as well as US Customs stickers. A letter of provenance from Day is included
with both guitars.
"Garcia used the Casio from time to time during the
Grateful Dead's space sequence. I know
he used it at the last Dead show on May 6, 1989 at Stanford University's
Frost Amphitheatre," Day continued.
According to Day, "Garcia was a generous man and got a
kick from giving personal items to family and friends, as well as to members of
the entire tribe." Garcia gave Day
the Steinberger guitar as a gift on July 29, 1988, just as he was due to leave
for three days of shows at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. Day was humored by Garcia's words: "Hope
you enjoy playing this, or you could sell it if you want!"
"Garcia was very supportive and motivating in my quest
to improve my guitar playing and he encouraged me to look at more modern sounds
and synthesizers, etc. He was really
into music technology. I had fun with
some of the gizmos he gave me and am happy to say he was proud of my
achievements," said Day. Additional
highlights from the December sale include a Beatles Butcher Cover set of
4-color separations from the stereo version of the 1966 album (est.
$10/15,000); a one-sheet film poster from David O. Selznick's 1939 Academy
Award®-winning epic Gone with the Wind (est.
$10/15,000) and a prop Victorian style cut-glass inkwell from the 1964 Academy
Award® winning film My Fair Lady
(est. $1/1,500). A one-sheet film poster
from 1961's classic Breakfast at
Tiffany's features the famous image of Audrey Hepburn (est. $2/2,500) while
a 5-foot 7-inch humanoid/amphibious creature from the classic 1954 Universal
horror flick The Creature from the Black
Lagoon is estimated at $3,000 to $5,000.
An original "Vargas Girl" drawing by pin-up artist Alberto
Vargas could bring as much as $5,000) and collector interest is expected for an
original script for the 1954 holiday film White
Christmas owned and used by Michael Curtiz (est. $3/5,000) and for an archive
never-before-seen items related to Marilyn Monroe.
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