Angels: the sequel

[pallas_athena]

After lunch it's comedy time, with a bunch of Carry On items taking pride of place: softly-spoken-baseball-cap-guy buys many of these. The crowd really wakes up when Peter Sellers' beat-up tweed fishing hat from The Pink Panther goes under the hammer.

We've changed auctioneers: the new one's a smallish middle-aged man with a touch of Wodehousean flair. He sells the hell out of the hat, encouraging a hesitant bidder with "come on, sir, you'll never see it again!" It works: the bidder stays in, earning an "I like your spirit, sir" from our new leader. Hats are a motif this afternoon: another Sellers hat goes for £3000; two fibreglass Knights-Who-Say-Ni helmets from Monty Python and the Holy Grail are bid up to £4000 each, while a metal one worn by Terry Jones as Sir Bedivere (but missing its flippy face-guard) goes for £10,000. Andie MacDowell's broad-brimmed black hat from Four Weddings fetches £2600 from a bidder who keeps checking with his female companion, but continues bidding when she urges caution.

A spot of comic relief as a spry Bonhams staffer models Dick Van Dyke's clown suit from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, then on to the Land of Rock. A cardigan from Tommy, a caftan from Help!, some dresses from Velvet Goldmine... and what's this? Spiceworld???? Excuse me, sir, are you actually bidding £2600 for Posh Spice's blue catsuit? In the name of God, why?

Richard Burton's ornate boots from Cleopatra kick off the "Historical and Period films" segment. At £800, those are some badass boots. However, my faith in humanity takes a nose-dive when the bidding on a battle costume worn by Mel Gibson in that steaming pile of crap known as Braveheart reaches £21,000. Seriously: lousy actor/nasty man; awful movie; costume that seems to consist mostly of a tartan blanket-- what is there here that could possibly be worth pocket change, let alone twenty-one grand? You do realise, don't you, that you could have bought Sean Connery's Indiana Jones suit instead? Bet you're sorry you didn't: that has to be the manliest tweed suit EVAR.

Kenneth Branagh's Henry V costume, complete with bitchin' thigh-high boots, goes for £4800-- surprisingly, £1200 less than Kevin Costner's outfit from Robin Hood, Prince of Dorks. (Sadly, Alan Rickman's bondage-tastic Sherriff of Nottingham doublet is nowhere to be seen. But... but Alan Rickman in studded leather was the whole point of that movie! How do they not know that?

A totally gorgeous masquing outfit from Restoration precedes another lot I was thinking of bidding on: 3 gloriously distressed 18th-century outfits from Plunkett and Macleane. Again, the bids rise steeply; the eventual winner, at £950, is a grey-haired man who's brought his wife and daughter along for support. His obvious joy makes everyone smile.

I'm still jonesing for a frock coat, but I get outbid by softly-spoken-bicycle-cap-guy again on two from The Wicked Lady. Some of the evening's loveliest costumes, Helena Bonham Carter's from The Wings of a Dove, float by at £700. A little later, we're into Indiana Jones, and testosterone is practically condensing on the walls. Sirius Black's distressed linen overcoat from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban goes for £13,000, while the much more attractive robe worn by Zoe Wanamaker as Madam Hooch fetches a mere £950.

My cult-o-meter is entering meltdown: Jude Law's Sky Captain jacket, Timothy Dalton's Flash Gordon waistcoat, and Peter Cushing's overcoat from The Evil of Frankenstein parade past, followed by some clothes from Highlander which get bid up to ridiculously high prices, and --ooh! a pair of Superbriefs! And Lex Luthor's bling! A blonde Bonhams staffer models Helen Slater's Supergirl costume, which gets bid up to £5500. This wakes everyone up in time for the grand finale: Star Wars.

The guy modelling the Imperial commander's uniform has clearly seen some military service: he strides proudly down the catwalk to the strains of the Empire march, then comes to a steely-eyed halt. One of the crowd calls out "It's yours!" £7500 later, it's someone else's. Then a bearded man who is officially The Luckiest Bonhams Staffer In The Universe Ever appears on the horizon in brown: It's Obi-Wan's robe! He steps slowly along, then pulls out a blue lightsaber and strikes a pose. Around me, the crowd goes wild. (I mean, wild for British people. You know, sort of mildly enthusiastic.)

And so the day ends with possibly the world's most expensive geekout. So too ends this load of bloggage. I may have come home empty-handed, but I've had a very entertaining day-- for free! As for you, if you've managed to read all of this, you deserve some sort of medal for Bravery Under A Barrage of Bollocks. Cheers!

Comments

[laughingmagpie.livejournal.com]

Gah! Some people have no taste - Braveheart over Henry V? Spiceworld over Madame Hooch??

The story about the phone bidder is intriguing. I hope it is the V&A or at least someone like that - I would love to have the chance to see some of these on display.

Thanks so so much for sharing the experience!

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I was intrigued to see that your wish to see most of the Doctor Who costumes stay together came true-- now the question is, who's got them? I do hope it's someone who'll let them be seen.

Thank you for posting about it; I really enjoyed the day.

[orkamedies.livejournal.com]

Hear hear, Breaveheart over Henry V, sodding lousy film the disturbing thing is the whole outfit made "mostly of a tartan blanket" unfortunatly describes some re enactors i could mention.
Still i suppose you cant blame the scots for going on about Banockburn it's one of their very few victories over the English.

[gothichaven.livejournal.com]

I wish I could have been there for the Carry On stuff.. I would have LOVED the Joan Sims outfit from Carry on Henry.. Wah!!! oh well...thanks for the post though most enjoyable seeing what people will pay for memorabilia

[pvcdiva.livejournal.com]

the only Carry On costume worth having is, of course, Fenella Fielding's red dress from Carry on Screaming. One day I pull my finger out and make the damn thing

[gothichaven.livejournal.com]

that is so what you should do.. I love that dress and those tiny kitten heel pointed shoes... she was/is a fox!

[captrenault.livejournal.com]

*wonders who could have been so nice to have bought him Scaramanga's jacket for his birthday later this year*

*knows it's a long, long shot*

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

/wraps jacket reverently with a nice bow

[orkamedies.livejournal.com]

I dont seem to be able to get the images to apear (something about Java script not working) you couldn't e mail me copies of pictures of the Plunkett and Mcleane outfits could you?

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

I'll try! If I don't succeed, I've got the catalogue here, which you're welcome to have a look at whenever we next meet. (Right now I can't get the image to load either; I'll try again when I get home.)