'Flying Eyeball' Jimi Hendrix psychedelic concert poster sells for far out, record price
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas) - Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said it blazed through all previous psychedelic poster world records with the sale of a 1968 Jimi Hendrix 'Flying Eyeball' concert poster.
"It's simply wonderful to see these iconic concert posters start to gain traction in the art world itself. It sort of makes one feel like the first million-dollar concert poster may be a light that we can now see at the end of the tunnel," Heritage's Director of Concert Posters, Pete Howard said in part.
Signed by its designer Rick Griffin, the poster sold for $175,000, which is nearly $40,000 more than any previous psychedelic concert poster has fetched at auction.
Considered iconic by many collectors, the original first-printing poster has a trademark winged and bloodshot blue eye floating through a fiery red background.
It was created for The Jimi Hendrix Experience, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers and Albert King show at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland Ballroom in '68.
Also known as BG-105 in the Bill Graham numbered series (and nicknamed the 'Flying Eyeball'), it's the first 9.8-graded copy of this poster publicly sold and the highest grade known to exist, according to Heritage Auctions.
The previous record holder in the specific category, also a Heritage lot, was a 9.6-graded Grateful Dead 'Skeleton & Roses' poster that sold for $137,500 last year.
The poster came from the coveted collection of David Swartz.
