For decades, a major piece of counter-culture history was wedged behind a bed in a San Francisco house. A pipe, made by LSD pioneer Augustus Owsley Stanley for Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia, was recently recovered. Our BrennaEhrlich has the story:
That arrest wouldn’t be the last of Stanley’s legal troubles; in the early Seventies, he finally wound up in prison, where he honed the skills he would later use to make Garcia’s spirit pipe, along with other bits of what he called “wearable sculptures,” according to Cabella. Rhoney Stanley, Owsley’s ex and partner in LSD crime, tellsthat he gifted her one of his first pieces when she visited him in jail: a metal heart with wings, a reference to the Hells Angels.
“In my mind, Stanley was never a good artist,” he adds. “Copied isn’t the right word, borrowed isn’t the word, stolen isn’t the right word, but he would use other people’s designs or have people make the designs that he had in his head.” . Saunders Jr. sold it to Cabella for a few grand, “basically my entire budget I had for buying rare rock posters at the time, but it seemed like a no-brainer,” Cabella says. Saunders Jr. replied to’s initial email confirming that he sold the pipe to Cabella, but did not respond to follow-ups.