Grateful Dead memorabilia snapped up at auction

Memorabilia collected by the Grateful Dead’s long-time road manager sold for more than $1.1m at auction.

The collection of Lawrence “Ram Rod” Shurtliff included a 1975 cream-coloured Travis Bean electric guitar played by vocalist and lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, which fetched $312,000, according to Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers.

Deadheads, as fans of the former rock band are known, bidding by phone and in the crowded auction room in San Francisco bid up prices for band photos, original album artwork, guitars and other musical gear collected by Shurtliff over the decades.

A leather guitar strap worn by Garcia on stage around 1973 sold for $20,400 -- four times the estimated selling price.

A flight case containing Garcia’s picks, unopened guitar strings and other accessories sold for $16,800.

Shurtliff, who died in 2006, started as a truck driver for the band in 1967 and went on to become president of the group’s board of directors when the Dead incorporated in the 1970s.