Celebrities are notorious for taking props from sets to keep as personal moments. Daniel Radcliffe has admitted to taking several pairs of Harry Potter glasses, while Adam Driver took home a lightsaber while filming Star Wars. However, this could soon be a thing of the past as props from many of our most beloved TV shows are being put up for auction.
Instead of reusing or archiving props and costumes, production companies are partnering with auction houses to sell entire sets of popular television series.
This week, London auction house Bonhams launched a free exhibition of more than 450 items from Netflix’s historical drama The Crown, which will go under the hammer in two separate auctions in February.
It includes everything from a replica of Diana’s ‘revenge’ dress worn in the show by actor Elizabeth Debicki (the original sold for almost £40,000 in 1997) to two miniature porcelain corgis, modeled on versions seen on the desk of Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. It is estimated that the auction could raise more than £1 million.
However, this pales in comparison to the show’s massive budgets. Last year, financial statements revealed that each of the ten episodes in season five cost £11.6 million per hour, with the lavish set designs boosting the budget. However, the auction is not an attempt to recoup costs. Proceeds from a special 161-lot live auction will go to a new program for film students, the Left Bank Pictures – The Crown Scholarship, at the National Film and Television School.
While sales of celebrity estates are common, a growing market for on-screen memorabilia has recently captured public interest. Charlie Thomas, head of sales at Bonhams, says The Crown auction marks the first time a complete set from a single production has gone on sale in Britain. “It’s completely unique, nothing like this has ever happened before.”
Elsewhere, more than 200 items including Waystar-branded coffee mugs, a ‘ridiculously fickle’ Burberry bag and four ‘Boar on the Floor’ plastic sausages will go under the hammer on Sunday as US Heritage Auctions offers a raft of sells. Unique souvenirs from HBO’s cult series Succession.
Jax Strobel, director of Heritage Screenbid who worked with HBO to organize the online sale, described the audience response as “extraordinary”.
The most viewed items on the site are Kendall Roy’s Waystar Royco plastic ID badge and Tom Wambsgans’ black Calvin Klein wallet containing a fake black credit card and a wad of dollar bills. “Many fans have focused on the hidden details revealed in the documents created by a props department,” says Strobel, highlighting Roman Roy’s undelivered eulogy written on pink notecards and a birthday card from Logan to Kendall , the happy birthday letter crossed out and replaced with “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, in a “five dollar bin in a downtown fashion showroom” is estimated to have raises more than £10,000. next week in an online auction.
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 questions coming from America to the Middle East. Thomas says he was able to spot the life-size replica of the gold state coach, which is estimated to fetch between £30,000 and £50,000, in a nightclub in Las Vegas. As for the facade of No. 10 Downing Street (£20,000 to £30,000), without Larry the cat, would it surprise anyone if Boris Johnson made a winning bid to secure it for parties at his moated castle in Oxfordshire?
Not all fans are happy. “At this time, only people with inheritance money can participate,” reads a comment on a Reddit forum indicating that a stunt foam can of cranberry sauce that Logan Roy used to store his grandson is up for bidding for more than £260. Others have pointed out that many of the more generic royal pieces from The Crown set could have been reused elsewhere for sustainability purposes.
“I just wonder if some of the best props could just disappear into private ownership, never to be seen again,” says Scott Bryan, TV critic and host. “In years to come, there may be interest in an exhibition of a beloved show from this era, and that may be more difficult if the props are scattered or difficult to find.”
What our writers would choose…
Jonathan Freedland: Naturally, I’m drawn to the strapless silk chiffon dress with asymmetrical frilled hem and ruffled hem worn by Sarah Jessica Parker 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 twenty years later, I have a hard time convincing myself I didn’t stage. Nevertheless, and perhaps selfishly, I would put my money toward a bid for the fake New York magazine cover depicting the Roy family at war. One of the very specific pleasures of Succession was its genius for fictional media reporting – the false but believable stories that crawled across the screen of ATN, Waystar Royco’s Fox News-like channel, or the double-page spread in the New York Times during the takeover from the Swede. (and yes, I pressed pause to scrutinize every readable word of that). Showing a real fake on the downstairs toilet would be too good to pass up. How much would I offer? I’d do like Logan: gather information on my rival suitors, blow them all out of the water before collecting my song award.
Jess Cartner-Morley: When Sex and the City first came out, I wanted to be Carrie Bradshaw. Millions of women did that. The tutu skirt she wore in the opening credits is the ultimate Carrie look and a genius costume design by Patricia Field, because it explains who the character is in one frame – outrageous, funny, romantic. The bidding currently stands at $9,000 – a lot for a skirt Field paid $5 for in a sale bin, and it will likely go for much more. But certainly an absolute wink for a cultural icon. I would definitely raise my paddle. In Carrie’s own words: “I like my money where I can see it. Hangs in my closet.”
Sam Wollaston: My neighborhood is slowly becoming more beautiful, there is now even a Tesla parked a few doors away and our moss-covered Skoda Fabia embarrasses the children. So in a (literal) attempt to not just keep up with the Joneses, but overtake them (probably not literally), I’m going to use the reproduction gold state coach used in The Crown (seasons 3 and 6) and park it outside . This replica of the ostentatious rococo carriage built for George III in 1762 and used for major royal bashes ever since is, according to auction house Bonhams, a ‘unique opportunity to own the ultimate in royal transport.’ Perfect. I hope it has a decent sound system, I’m thinking booming hip hop, at school.
Oh, motor not included! How much can eight white horses cost? Or there’s always the donkey shelter, I guess. The carriage is expected to cost £30,000 to £50,000? Good…well, not good, but Tesla margin. And no one is even looking at your Tesla now, right? Take Olivia Colman And Imelda Staunton drove into it? I do not think so…
John Crace: The door to No. 10 is tempting. But where on earth would I put it? And with a target price of € 10,000, that’s a lot of money for something that will rot in the garden. Anyway, I have plenty of photos of me outside Number 10, from the parties the Prime Minister reluctantly throws for lobby journalists every year. So from The Crown auction it has to be the little sign that says ‘Cabinet Room’. The guide price for this starts at just £100, so it’s more or less affordable and it would look great on the landing outside my office at home.
The follow-up auction is a little more difficult. I’m not sure I’m the kind of guy who knows how to talk his way into the Rupert Murdoch world of the super-rich. I mean, even a fake private jet that doesn’t go anywhere is going to bankrupt me. So it will have to be Greg’s Calvin Klein suit. Not only because I can identify with the needy outsider longing to be accepted, but also because the current offer is only $410. That feels very cheap, Logan Roy would approve.