Entertainment Memorabilia

Film buffs take note, auctioneers Thomas Plant and Neil Shuttleworth of Special Auction Services are to preside over a movie memorabilia auction on September 27 totalling nearly 600 lots.

The Osbourne family have snapped up Black Sabbath memorabilia ahead of a planned auction in Sheffield.

The majority of a collection that was previously part of a long-running public exhibition of The Jam memorabilia comes to auction in Liverpool this October.

A gold watch given by The Who drummer Keith Moon and John Entwistle’s Anello & Davide tan suede heeled boots are among the lots up for sale in the Film & Music Memorabilia Auction at Aston’s Auctioneers on September 15.

With his trademark fez and deceptively shambolic stage persona, Tommy Cooper was one of Britain’s best known TV personalities. Now the Victoria & Albert Museum is acknowledging his fame and popularity with the announcement that they have acquired the comedian’s memorabilia collection.

The ashes of author Truman Capote are to go under the hammer at a Los Angeles auction of entertainment memorabilia next month.

A significant collection of computer history is to be auctioned off following the closure of a famous electronics shop, where the collection was compiled over nearly 30 years.

Ozzy Osbourne is famous for not only fronting the trailblazing heavy metal band Black Sabbath but also drink and drugs and wild antics such as biting the head off a bat on stage.

Who you gonna call? If you have ectoplasm seeping through the floorboards then ‘Ghostbusters’ is the obvious answer, shouted loudly.

A new record for a Star Wars production figure was established at Vectis' latest sale when a French issue of Boba Fett, the memorable bit-part character in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, sold for £21,000.

Christie’s South Kensington have ceased regular sales of vintage posters. The leading player in the popular collecting field say that they will now offer posters for sale in online auctions when the opportunity to sell an exceptional collection arises.

A series of posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec headlines the upcoming Vintage Posters sale at Swann Auction Galleries in New York.

The Rocket Firing Boba Fett has assumed legendary status among Star Wars collectors. Modelled in grey-blue plastic in advance of mass production by the Kenner factory in Ohio, it would forever remain a prototype figure.

“When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not.” The wise, if somewhat mangled words of Yoda, are ones that the great and good of the art and antiques trade will sagely nods their heads to. Then again, a nice patina and original condition are often just what’s needed.

Certain moments in films stay razor sharp in the mind long after you have seen them. Mention ‘Jack Nicholson’ and it is odds-on a mental image will spring up of that terrifying ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene from The Shining.

A new auction high for a ski poster was established at Christie’s South Kensington’s annual Ski sale, held on January 21, when this 1934 colour lithograph advertising the attractions of the Swiss resort of Gstaad sold for £62,000 (plus premium).

“It is a somewhat incoherent narrative, which, however, gives Lon Chaney an opportunity to turn up in an uncanny disguise and also to manifest his powers as Scotland Yard’s expert hypnotist. You are therefore treated to close-ups of Mr Chaney’s rolling orbs, which, fortunately, do not exert their influence on the audience.”

In May actor Michael Sheen starred in a BBC Wales TV adaptation of ‘Under Milk Wood’ and has taken part in several Dylan Thomas tributes in this centenary year of the poet’s birth.

Wilsons Auctions of Mallusk and Portadown in Northern Ireland have sold off more than 1000 pieces of sci-fi memorabilia seized by police from a woman who stole £2.3m from her employers.

A draft of Bob Dylan’s seminal recording Like A Rolling Stone set a new auction record for a pop song manuscript when it sold for $1.7m (£1.04m) to an unnamed collector at Sotheby’s New York on June 24.