by Celebrities are known for taking props from sets to save as personal moments. Daniel Radcliffe admitted to taking several pairs of Harry Potter glasses, while Adam Driver took home a lightsaber when he was filming Star Wars. However, this could soon be a thing of the past as props from many of our best-loved TV shows are set to go up for auction.
Instead of reusing or archiving props and costumes, production companies are teaming up with auction houses to sell entire sets from popular television series.
This week, auction house Bonhams opened a free exhibition in London showcasing more than 450 items from the Netflix historical drama The Crown, which will go under the hammer in two separate auctions in February.
Ranging from a replica of Diana’s “revenge” dress worn in the show by actress Elizabeth Debicki (the original sold in 1997 for almost £40,000) to two miniature porcelain corgis modeled after versions seen on Diana’s desk. Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, It is estimated that the auction could generate more than £1 million.
However, this pales in comparison to the show’s enormous budgets. Last year, financial statements revealed that each of the fifth series’ 10 episodes cost £11.6 million per hour, with lavish set designs skyrocketing the budget. However, the auction is not an attempt to recover costs. Proceeds from a special live auction with 161 lots will go towards a new program for film students, Left Bank Pictures – The Crown Scholarship, at the National Film and Television School.
While celebrity property sales are common, more recently a growing market for on-screen memorabilia has sparked public interest. Charlie Thomas, head of sales at Bonhams, says The Crown auction is the first time a complete set of a singular production has gone on sale in the UK. “It’s completely unique, nothing like this has ever happened before.”
Separately, on Sunday more than 200 items, including Waystar-branded coffee mugs, a “ridiculously whimsical” Burberry bag and four plastic “Boar on the Ground” sausages, will go up for auction as US Heritage Auctions sells a huge haul one’s. Unique memorabilia from the cult HBO TV show Succession.
Jax Strobel, CEO of Heritage Screenbid who worked with HBO to set up the online sale, describes the public response as “extraordinary.”
The most viewed items on the site include Kendall Roy’s Waystar Royco plastic dog tag and Tom Wambsgans’ black Calvin Klein wallet that includes a fake black credit card and a wad of one-dollar bills. “Many fans have focused on the hidden details revealed in documents created by a prop department,” Strobel says, highlighting Roman Roy’s unspoken eulogy written on pink cards and a birthday card from Logan to Kendall, the missive from happy birthday crossed out and replaced. for “Cash Out and Fuck Off” handwritten in blue ink.
Meanwhile, a tutu worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in the opening credits of Sex and The City and originally found by the show’s costume designer, Patricia Field, is estimated to have been in a “five-dollar bin in a fashion showroom.” from the city center” is selling for more than £10,000. in an online auction next week.
As for who will buy a replica of the coronation chair or a reproduction of Diana’s engagement ring, it’s anyone’s guess, with inquiries from the United States to the Middle East. Thomas says he was able to see the full-size replica of the Gold State coach, estimated to cost between £30,000 and £50,000, in a Las Vegas nightclub. As for the facade of 10 Downing Street (£20,000-£30,000), minus Larry the cat, would it surprise anyone if Boris Johnson made a winning bid to secure it for parties at his moated mansion in Oxfordshire?
Not all fans are happy. “Only people with Estate money can participate at this time,” reads a comment on a Reddit forum noting that bids for a can of cranberry sauce foam used by Logan Roy to beat his grandson are worth over £260. Others have pointed out that many of the more generic royal pieces from The Crown’s set could have been reused elsewhere for sustainability purposes.
“I wonder if some of the best props could disappear into private hands, never to be seen again,” says Scott Bryan, a television critic and broadcaster. “In the next few years there might be interest in an exhibit of a much-loved show from this era, and that might be more difficult if the props are scattered or hard to find.”
What our writers would choose…
Jonathan Freeland: Naturally, I’m drawn to the strapless silk chiffon dress with asymmetrical ruffled hem that Sarah Jessica Parker wore in season 3, episode 17 of Sex and the City. Not so much for me, but for my wife, who was once mistaken for Carrie Bradshaw by a waiter in Paris, a moment that, even now, almost two decades later, I have a hard time convincing her I didn’t stage. However, and perhaps selfishly, I would be investing my money in a bid for the mock cover of New York magazine, depicting the Roy family at war. One of the very specific pleasures of Succession was its genius for fictional media coverage: the false but believable stories that crawl across the screen of ATN, Waystar Royco’s Fox News-like channel, or the double-page spread in the New York Times during the Swede’s takeover. (and yes, I paused to examine every readable word of that one). Having a genuine fake on display in the downstairs bathroom would be too good to pass up. How much would you bid? I would do like Logan: gather information on my rival suitors and then blow them all out of the water before collecting my prize for a song.
Jess Carter-Morley: When Sex and the City came out, I wanted to be Carrie Bradshaw. Millions of women did it. The tutu skirt she wore in the opening credits is Carrie’s definitive look and a brilliant piece of costume design by Patricia Field, because she explains who the character is (outrageous, funny, romantic) in a single frame. The bidding currently stands at $9,000 – a lot for a skirt that Field paid $5 for in a sales bin, and will likely sell for much more. But it is certainly an absolute cut for a cultural icon. She sure would lift the oar. In Carrie’s own words: “I like my money right where I can see it. Hanging in my closet.”
Sam Wollaston: My neighborhood is slowly improving, now there’s even a Tesla parked a few doors down and our moss-covered Skoda Fabia is embarrassing the kids. So, in a (literal) attempt to not only keep up with the Joneses but surpass them (probably not literally), I’ll have the reproduction of the gold state coach used in The Crown (seasons 3 and 6) and park it outside. This replica of the striking Rococo carriage built in 1762 for George III and used at grand royal feasts ever since is, according to Bonhams auction house, a “unique opportunity to own the ultimate in royal transportation.” Perfect. I hope it has a decent sound system, I’m thinking booming hip-hop, at school.
Ah, engine not included! Well, how much can eight white horses cost? Or there’s always the donkey sanctuary, I guess. Is the carriage expected to cost between £30,000 and £50,000? Well… well, not well, but in the Tesla ballpark. And now no one is even looking at your Tesla, right? Have Olivia Colman and Did Imelda Staunton ride it? I do not think…
John Crace: The door to number 10 is tempting. But where the hell would I put it? And with a guide price of £10,000, that’s a lot of money for something that’s going to rot in the garden. In any case, I have plenty of photos of me outside Number 10 from the parties the Prime Minister reluctantly throws each year for lobby journalists. So, from The Crown auction, it has to be the little sign that says “Cabinet Room.” The guide price starts at just £100, so it’s more or less affordable and would look great on the landing outside my home office.
The Succession auction is a little more complicated. I’m not sure I’m the kind of person who knows how to buy his way into Rupert Murdoch’s world of the super-rich. I mean, even a mockup of a private jet that’s going nowhere is going to bankrupt me. So it will have to be Greg’s Calvin Klein suit. Not only because I can relate to the needy outsider who longs to be accepted, but also because the current offer is only $410. Which seems really cheap, Logan Roy would approve.
