Released in Summer 2021 in an edition of just 30, this ultra-rare expression brings a distinctive racing motif to the original Icon of JMM. Checkers cross the DEALAN’s acetate surfaces with the staccato impression of a flag caught at speed, while the lifted corners preserve the defiant profile of the cat-eyed spectacles Bob Dylan wore in the mid ’60s as he made one of popular music’s sharpest turns, moving from folk phenomenon to electric provocateur. 

Those glasses appeared throughout Dylan’s contentious performances and combative press encounters of 1965, from the English tour captured in D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back to his divisive set at the Newport Folk Festival, and helped define his image through Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Their dark lenses and subtle tilt suited an artist in constant motion, leaving one identity behind as soon as the world had learned to recognize it.

Introduced during Jacques Marie Mage’s debut season, the DEALAN recast that unmistakable silhouette in ample volumes, sleek lines, and precious-metal details. The Checkers color story gives the frame’s sculptural planes a graphic rhythm connecting Dylan’s restless reinvention to the noise and nerve of the racetrack. Numbered 13 of 30, the frame presented for auction is among the most elusive expressions of the design that started it all.