Entertainment Memorabilia

From autographs to stage costumes, musical instruments to locks of hair, posters to film props, entertainment memorabilia encompasses anything that has an association with celebrities in the world of film, popular music and show business.

Certain celebrities or brands can be bankers like The Beatles, Elvis or Bond Films. Broadly speaking, the closer the direct association an item has with the person to whom it relates, the higher the value will be.

Provenance is key in this sector as an important guide to authenticity.


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Beatlemania goes Down-Under

16 May 2014

Leonard Joel of Melbourne will be marking the 50th anniversary of the Beatles arriving to tour Australia by offering a collection of photographs taken of the group in Adelaide.

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Sotheby’s to sell Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to ‘Like a Rolling Stone’

01 May 2014

A near complete working draft written by Bob Dylan for arguably his most famous song, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, will be offered at Sotheby’s in New York this summer.

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Monster total for original Frankenstein poster

06 August 2013

Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas, are claiming a new auction record for an insert movie poster.

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Bidders log on and phone in from the slopes

21 February 2013

Started by Nicolette Tomkinson, head of the posters department at Christie’s South Kensington, 15 years ago, the only dedicated ski poster sale in the UK has successfully mastered a small but lucrative field.

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Railway poster from 1928 taken to new high

13 December 2012

Designed for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, a 1928 poster by Cassandre (1901-68) sold at Swann Auction Galleries of New York for what is believed to be a record for the sought-after poster designer at auction.

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The earliest surviving poster of Mickey Mouse

13 December 2012

A 1928 movie poster of Mickey Mouse, thought to be the earliest surviving poster of the Walt Disney character, has fetched $85,000 (£56,000) at auction in Dallas, Texas.

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London Underground sale is a one-off for poster collectors

18 October 2012

The eagerly anticipated auction of Underground posters direct from the archives of London Transport Museum was a sell-out at Christie’s South Kensington earlier this month.

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Bainbridges over the moon about Neil Armstrong launch film discovery

24 September 2012

Original film footage of the 1969 moon launch, including the moments before Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts boarded the Apollo spacecraft, has come to light in West London.

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Tube poster auction will support transport museum

13 September 2012

Christie’s South Kensington are staging an auction of original Underground posters to be sold on behalf of the London Transport Museum on October 4.

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Original scripts for The Archers come to auction

20 August 2012

As fans of BBC Radio Four’s ‘The Archers’ fear for the show’s gentle, bucolic nature becoming “darker and bigger”, a set of ten scripts coming up for sale act as a reminder of the early days.

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Olympic poster that tells torchbearer’s story

27 June 2012

This original poster for the 1948 Olympic Games by Walter Herz (b.1909) will be offered at Onslows’ internet auction of vintage posters on June 29.

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Swiss still the kings of the slopes

11 February 2012

Posters of St Moritz, Davos, Gstaad continue to dominate at ski sales in London.

Supreme Court hears Star Wars copyright case

14 March 2011

DETERMINING whether something is an artwork or not is at the centre of an appeal to the UK Supreme Court in a copyright dispute between Star Wars producer George Lucas and one of his former prop makers.

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Packaging makes all the difference in Star Wars market

01 June 2010

MOST Star Wars aficionados are familiar with the story of the Flintshire pensioner who bought 20 Palitoy action figures for 49p each in 1978 and sold them at Stockton-on-Tees toy specialists Vectis for a small fortune in 2003.

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Pin-ups from the age of the train

20 February 2010

Last month in Harrogate, auctioneers Morphets held a sale of what is thought to be the biggest collection of vintage railway posters ever to come on the market.

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Spike Milligan collection brings strong bidding despite family disputes

01 December 2008

The collection of national treasure, writer and poet, jazz musician and eco-warrior, but most memorably of all, the Goon and tormented comic genius that was Spike Milligan, brought strong bidding at Bonhams on November 25.

eBay raise the stakes in Harry Potter dispute

18 June 2007

Does Rowling have them rattled?

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How would you have spent £50,000?

12 March 2007

On March 6, amid a scrum of journalists and anoraks, Bonhams sold the Angels collection of stage and screen costume including Obi Wan Kenobi’s hooded cloak from the original Star Wars film, knocked down below expectations at £45,000.

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From £14,000 to £19,000 in just one season

22 January 2007

Snowfall may be sparse across the Alps this season, but it didn’t stop the storm of buyers at the tenth annual ski poster sale at Christie’s South Kensington on January 18 from raising their paddles.

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The original Red-Nose Day

18 December 2006

Illustrated by Denver Gillen, Robert L. May’s poem about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was first issued in 1939 as a give-away booklet for children by a Chicago department store, Montgomery Ward.

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