Auction News Network

Print Of A Car For $100,000?

Car prices have been soaring in Phoenix this week, but in London Bonhams will offer just a print of a car that likely will sell for more than $100,000. It’s by Cyril Edward Power of a car that broke the land speed record in 1931. The owner bought the linocut print 25-years ago for $32 and hung it in his garage. Unaware of its value, he showed it to a Bonhams representative at the Grand Concours in Pebble Beach.

Vintage Ski Posters At Christie’s

Now that ski season’s in full swing, Christie’s will commemorate it with a London sale of vintage ski posters and items evoking, “Traveling In Style.” Three posters created between 1920 and 1930 are expected to be the peak offerings. A single track leads down a bucolic slope in Plinio Colombi’s rendering of St. Moritz. Christie’s expects it will lead to a price as high as $24,255.

Jesse James Wanted Poster Sells For $42,000

America is fascinated with its outlaws, especially dead ones from the old West. A creased, yellowed wanted poster for Jesse James sold over the weekend for $42,000 in Denver. To stop them from robbing banks and trains, the Governor of Missouri offered a $5,000 reward—a huge sum in the 1800′s–for either Jesse or his brother, Frank. At the time, no one collected.

Attic Find: Treasure Trove Of Glued Together Movie Posters

Somebody used wallpaper glue to stick together 33 old movie posters and left them in a Pennsylvania attic for 80-years. They have been steamed apart and will be sold individually by Heritage Auctions for an estimated total of $250,000 or more. The 1931 “Dracula” poster with gekko-eyed Bela Lugosi is the star attraction.

African Americana At Swann

Every year Swann Galleries trains its focus on the African-American experience. This year’s sale of printed and manuscript material features over 550 items, with sections devoted to slavery and abolition, civil rights, black power, history, music and literature—everything from a photograph of Tuskegee Airmen (est. $2,000-$3,000), to a pair of slave manacles ($2500-$3500),  to an Ivory elephant tusk recovered from the wreck of a 16^th century slave ship (est. $8000-$12,000).

Liz Taylor Frenzy Continues

An inscribed Andy Warhol lithograph of Elizabeth Taylor soared to $662,500, leaving its $30,000-$50,000 estimate far behind, as the bidding frenzy continued at Christie’s in New York. Yesterday’s sales focused on a second offering of jewelry, which added $21.3m to the $115.9m achieved at the preceding night’s auction of jewels, and on haute couture, which achieved a total of $2.6m. The top selling gown was a Christian Dior evening dress of silver encrusted brocade, which sold for $362,500.

Swann Features Work of Roger Broders

During the first half of the last century, Roger Broders was a prolific French illustrator who specialized in tourist posters. His subjects included popular destinations like the fashionable Cote d’Azur and ski resorts in the French Alps. On December 15^th, Swann’s will hold a sale devoted exclusively to his work. The top estimated lots are posters for Vichy-Comite des Fetes and Monte Carlo, each estimated at $15,000-$20,000.

B Movie Poster, A-List Price

‘One of a kind’ might not be the first phrase that springs to mind about RKO’s 1932 thriller, “The Most Dangerous Game,” starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray and Leslie Banks. It is, however, an apt description of the lurid half-sheet poster for the movie. There’s only one, and at Heritage’s Vintage Movie Poster event on November 18-19, it’s expected to sell above $25,000.

Vintage Dartmouth Posters At Swann’s

Since 1911, Dartmouth College has been staging its famous Winter Carnival. Back in the ‘40’s it even inspired a movie, on which F. Scott Fitzgerald was briefly—until he overindulged at the festival– a writer. As it happens, every year for the past hundred there’s also been a new poster for the event, featuring a winning student design. Next month, Swann Galleries will sell a number of these vintage classics from the ‘30’s, ‘40’s, and ’50 as part of its Vintage Poster auction.

Update: The top selling ski poster was Herbert Bayer’s 1946 “Ski In Aspen, Colorado,” which brought in $16,800.

Most Valuable Movie Poster Ever?

Only one copy exists of Universal’s 1935 teaser one sheet Style E movie poster for “The Bride of Frankenstein,” now in the Todd Feiertag Collection. Heritage will offer it at their Beverly Hills Signature Movie Poster Auction on November 11-13, when it’s expected to sell for over $700,000.

Vintage Posters At Swann’s

Employees slacking off? One remedy in 1923-1929 was a series of 23 eye-catching Mather Work Incentive posters to be featured in a Swann Galleries auction on August 4.  In “Ready To Spring” a tiger crouches above a cautionary message: “The mistakes you don’t correct lie in wait to catch you again.” Two other posters presciently warn of gas leaks. “Stop the leak before it stops you,” reads the message in “A Hole In the Gas Tank,” which BP might heed.