I recently obtained scans of historic photos taken at the Lucasfilm Archives at Skywalker Ranch circa 1996/1997, depicting original props, costumes, models, and other assets from the original Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) as well as the Indiana Jones franchise (Raiders of the Lost Ark , Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade). [Read more…]
Lots for Premiere Props’ July auction have been listed online with online bidding partner iCollector, as part of their “Hollywood VIP Auction V”. The one-day auction is scheduled for January 18th, currently featuring “over 300 lots”. As with past auctions, the sale features a mix of studio-sourced material and consignor-sourced material, the latter of which includes some attributions that are not compelling with regards to provenance, such as swords attributed to Lord of the Rings, as well as material that has nothing to do with original assets from film and television productions, like Bambie and Michael Jackson Colorform sets and other lots that would fall under the broad heading of “memorabilia”. [Read more…]
Daniel Grant, writing for Gallerist, published an interesting article a few days ago about auction houses, reserves, and transparency (see “How Low Can You Go?: Should Auction Reserve Prices Be More Transparent?”). In his feature, he talks about how in nearly all cases, auction houses do not openly disclose the reserve (the lowest amount for which an item will sell at auction), and provides a variety of differing perspectives on how this practice impacts their respective markets and its participants. Of the auction houses specifically discussed in the article, only one – Heritage Auction – makes it known to the public what the reserve price is for every item that they offer for sale. [Read more…]
Profiles in History’s Winter auction catalog, “Hollywood Auction 62”, is now available in print as well as online, via their official site. This sale is scheduled for December 21st at their Calabasas Hills facility.
Kudos to Profiles, as it seems that they generally have changed their reserves/estimates strategy on much of the catalog, and steered away from the hopeful jackpot estimates that have plagued their sales more and more in the past year or two. It is another massive catalog, and though a good portion of it is familiar, there are some really interesting pieces in the Western Costume and Sound of Music sections in particular. [Read more…]
Premiere Props have listed their next auction with online bidding partners iCollector, LiveAuctioneers, and ArtFact as part of their “Hollywood Extravaganza XII”. The two-day auction is scheduled for November 23-24, currently featuring over 1,000 lots (though it appears more than half of that are not props and costumes but comic books, posters, and other memorabilia). As with past auctions, the sale includes a mix of original props, costumes, and other film and television artifacts, as well as general Hollywood Memorabilia. There are many vintage off the shelf antiques attributed to film and television productions with no explanation as to how and why such claims are made. [Read more…]
The catalog is now (partially) online for the Premiere Props “Fangoria Annual Horror Movie Prop Auction”, scheduled for October 26. Though the auction is only about a week away, some of the promised “over 500 lots” are now listed with online bidding partners iCollector, LiveAuctioneers, and ArtFact. Currently, the sale breaks at Lot 217 and then jumps ahead to Lot 467, and runs through Lot 509.
An issue that seems to come up with every official studio auction of original props and costumes from popular television shows is that of buyers feeling mislead by descriptions of auction houses, particularly use. We saw this with Christie’s and their official “40 years of Star Trek” auction, with Profiles in History and their sale of material from ABC’s LOST, and based on a reader comment today on my article about newcomer ScreenBid and their Breaking Bad auction, it would seem that the same issue is in play with this latest sale as well. Since people likely don’t check my articles for comments after reading it, I thought it might be worthwhile and productive to highlight that comment and my response in a new article, as it is an issue that seems to occur with each of these official studio sales, particularly because it brings in participants who have not participated in such sales before, and perhaps have not purchased or collected original props, costumes, and other artifacts from film and television. [Read more…]
ScreenUsed will be concluding their next live online auction on November 2nd. The auction catalog is now available online via a PDF download via their official website and collectors can bid on iCollector. Featuring an assortment of original props, costumes, and other production material and memorabilia from film and television, this auction includes 300 lots. Highlights include a number of original lightsabers from the Star Wars Prequel films, two sets of Wolverine’s prop claws used in X-Men: Origins, and a Nostromo pistol from Alien. Per their tradition and unique to their events, ScreenUsed have lower starting prices and reserves than many competing auctions. [Read more…]