Bonhams will be holding their next auction event on June 13th in Los Angeles – the “Entertainment Memorabilia including Animation Art” auction (Sale 18254). The catalog for this event can now be viewed online.
The online auction catalog can be viewed at Bonhams.com:
This sale includes over 300 lots. Much of the auction is comprised of Hollywood and celebrity-owned memorabilia and personal property, photographs, stills, posters/one sheets, and general “entertainment memorabilia”, with very few original props and costumes. Also included in the auction are letters, contracts, scripts, caricatures, paper ephemera, paintings, prints, industry awards, and other memorabilia and movie and television production material and assets.
As has been a trend in recent entertainment memorabilia auctions since his death, this sale includes a (“prototype”) glove attributed to Michael Jackson (see Lot 1129 ):
A Michael Jackson early prototype glove, late 1970s
A white spandex left-handed glove with a single snap closure at wrist; mostly covered with strips of rhinestone mesh (with white plastic mounts for each stone) that are hand-sewn onto the glove; the rhinestones used are alternatively iridescent and clear, covering the entire back and all but two fingers of the inside of glove. (Please note glove is somewhat yellowed due to age and some of the stitching of the rhinestone mesh is coming undone.)
Length: 9in
Estimate: $14,000 – 16,000
Footnote:
The rhinestone mesh and adhesive materials of this glove are consistent with those used on the gloves that Michael Jackson wore during the Jacksons’ 1981 ‘Triumph’ tour as well as on the 1983 television special, “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever.” It was on this now-famous TV special that Jackson introduced the ‘Moon Walk’ to the world while wearing a sparkly glove on one hand, thus cementing ‘a single glove’ as his most iconic wardrobe piece. Purportedly, Michael Jackson made the gloves himself that he wore on the ‘Triumph’ tour, and the glove being offered in this lot is likely one of the early prototypes he was experimenting with — seeing how it could be made and how it should look, etc. The application of the rhinestones on this glove is a bit rudimentary and applied in small patchwork at places which is unlike the more “polished” gloves he ended up wearing for the rest of his career. It is likely that Jackson made a number of early attempts at decorating his gloves, like this one, before figuring out the best way to apply the strips of rhinestone mesh.
PROVENANCE:
Included is a handwritten letter from the current consignor outlining how he obtained this glove: he has had it for the last 28 years, receiving it backstage at a Diana Ross concert in Las Vegas. At the time, Miss Ross said Michael Jackson had given the glove to her. Because a single glove was not yet an iconic symbol of Michael Jackson’s public persona, no one at this backstage gathering thought much of it. The current owner was (and still is) in the fashion industry and he just liked how it looked and liked that it had been previously owned by Jackson. Perhaps Jackson gave this glove to Ross for her opinion on it before he decided to wear it in public, though this is just speculation. Jackson and Ross were known to collaborate on artistic endeavors together so it does make sense that Ross would have something like this, for whatever reason. Nonetheless, this glove can be viewed as an early version of what was later to become a staple of Jackson’s wardrobe and, arguably, one of the most recognizable items in our current Pop Culture.
Thank you to Laura Woolley of The Collector’s Lab for her help with researching this lot.
Jason DeBord