Original 1st printing 16&7/8 x 26&7/8" (linen-backed to 18&5/8 x 28&5/8") concert poster for the Calliope Company's "Dance of Death Costume Ball", which featured the Grateful Dead appearing with Quicksilver Messenger Service and Mimi Farina at California Hall in San Francisco, CA on Halloween night, 10/31/1966.
Artist unknown ("Ken" is scratched into the plate in the lower right margin), image (monochrome flyer) is featured in the Art of Rock book on page 174 (plate 2.143)- this is the large full-color poster.
Medium flat vellum stock poster has been professionally restored to very good (B/B+) condition; there have been numerous repairs to edge/corner tears, a flattened center crease, paper fills, areas of over-painting, plus a tiny brown stain on the arm of one of the skeletons, a few age spots on "Dance of Death", a few tiny surface scuffs and spots... I can send close-ups of all of the areas of work on request.
Conditional/restoration issues aside, this remains an INCREDIBLY hard-to-find Grateful Dead piece from a legendary '66 Halloween show. The event was detailed on page 99 of Charles Perry's "Haight-Ashbury- A History":
"At California Hall there was the Calliope dance with the Dead, Quicksilver, Mimi Farina and "six authentic witches". It was agreeably spooky. The balconies of the hall were hung with nets holding plastic baby dolls. A Headless Horseman with a flashlight shining out of his decapitated neck stalked the hall. At midnight a Giant Pumpkin wheeled Death, wearing a red brocade Louis XIV jacket, around the hall in a wheelchair while Quicksilver played "Bo Diddley".