A legendary guitar once owned by Jerry Garcia, known as “Tiger,” sold for $9,500,000, or $11,560,000 including fees, at Christie’s in New York on Thursday as part of the Hall of Fame live auction of the late Jim Irsay‘s extraordinary collection, obliterating its pre-sale estimate of $1 million to $2 million and ranking among the most valuable guitars ever sold at auction.
Built by master luthier Doug Irwin over six years and completed in 1979, Tiger served as Garcia’s primary instrument throughout the 1980s and holds a singular place in Grateful Dead history. It was long believed that Garcia played Tiger during the final encore of his last show with the Grateful Dead at Chicago’s Soldier Field on July 9th, 1995, but longtime road manager Steve Parish recently clarified that Tiger’s true final appearance came earlier that year, at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco on April 23rd, 1995, during a Jerry Garcia Band show. According to Parish, Garcia reached for Tiger after his primary guitar, Rosebud, began experiencing technical problems toward the end of that set. Irsay, the late owner of the Indianapolis Colts, had purchased the instrument in 2002 for $957,500. On Thursday night, it sold for more than twelve times that price.
Christie’s declined Live For Live Music‘s request to confirm the identity of the buyer, but a video circulating on social media appears to show Bobby Tseitlin of Timeless Gem and Family Guitars was the winning bidder. In the video, guitarist Derek Trucks can be seen seated beside him, congratulating him as the hammer fell. Tseitlin and Family Guitars did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The purchase has been met with relief among Deadheads who had hoped Tiger would land with a buyer willing to let it be played rather than locked away. Family Guitars, whose collection includes instruments connected to artists like Jeff Beck, Dickey Betts, Randy Rhoads, Trey Anastasio, Kirk Hammett, Chuck Berry, Frank Zappa, and Mike Bloomfield, describes itself as a “living collection” of guitars that “continue to be played, heard, and experienced the way they were meant to be.” They already steward other instruments with Grateful Dead connections, including Garcia’s 1976 Travis Bean TB500 #11 and Bob Weir‘s 1983 Modulus Blackknife “No Fun” guitar.
Tiger was the second most expensive instrument of the evening, behind only David Gilmour‘s “Black Strat”—the 1969 Fender Stratocaster most closely associated with Pink Floyd‘s defining recordings—which claimed the title of the world’s most valuable guitar ever sold at auction with a hammer price of $12,100,000, or $14,550,000 including fees, far beyond its $2 million to $4 million estimate. The sale shattered the previous record of $6,010,000, set in 2020 when Kurt Cobain‘s Martin D-18E, used during Nirvana‘s celebrated MTV Unplugged performance, went under the hammer.
(All prices from this point forward include auction fees.)
Cobain’s 1969 Fender Competition Mustang, played in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video and the auction’s highest-estimated guitar going in at $2.5 million to $5 million, realized $6,907,000. Eric Clapton‘s Martin 000-42, used for his MTV Unplugged appearance, fetched $4,101,000. Clapton’s psychedelic “The Fool” Gibson SG brought $3,003,000, while George Harrison‘s Gibson SG Standard—used extensively from 1966 to 1968—sold for $2,271,000.
The Beatles accounted for a remarkable share of the evening’s highlights beyond guitars. The logo drum head from the band’s 1964 Ed Sullivan Show debut sold for $2,881,000, and Ringo Starr‘s first Ludwig drum kit, used with the band from May 1963 through February 1964, realized $2,393,000. John Lennon‘s Broadwood upright piano—on which he composed “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, “A Day in the Life”, and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”—surpassed expectations to sell for $3,247,000. Paul McCartney‘s handwritten “Hey Jude” lyrics brought $1,016,000.
Beyond music, Jack Kerouac‘s original 120-foot typescript scroll of On the Road was the night’s second-highest lot overall, selling for $12,135,000. Secretariat‘s race-used 1973 Triple Crown saddle realized $1,524,000, just at the low end of its estimate, while Wayne Gretzky‘s Edmonton Oilers jersey—photo-matched to both his 500th career goal and Game 7 of the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals—brought $952,500.
Irsay died in 2025 at 65, having spent decades assembling one of the most remarkable private collections of cultural artifacts in American history. Thursday’s auction, which included only part of his collection, brought in a total of $84,091,350, with a portion of the proceeds designated for charitable causes.
