8300 - Owsley Stanley Bronze 'Steal Your Face (Stealie)' Grateful Dead Belt Buckle

Owsley Stanley Bronze 'Steal Your Face (Stealie)' Grateful Dead Belt Buckle Highly sought-after cast bronze 'Steal Your Face (Stealie)' belt buckle designed by legendary Grateful Dead sound engineer Owsley Stanley, measuring approximately 2″ in diameter, with his signature, "OS BT/GDP," "1983," and "6" incised on the reverse. The Grateful Dead's iconic 'Stealie'—the lightning bolt-bisected skull—was designed by artist Stanley and Bob Thomas in 1969, initially using it to identify the band's equipment cases. In fine condition. Augustus Owsley Stanley III (1935-2011), known simply as "Owsley" or "Bear," was the legendary underground chemist, sound engineer, and counterculture icon who became the first private individual to manufacture LSD on a mass scale, producing an estimated 1.25 million doses between 1965 and 1967. A self-taught audio visionary, he served as the Grateful Dead's longtime sound engineer and financial patron, essentially bankrolling the band in their early years and pioneering concert sound reinforcement technology that transformed live music production. His singular influence on the psychedelic movement, the San Francisco music scene, and American counterculture cemented his status as one of the most mythologized and consequential figures of the 1960s.