Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Memorabilia
Bizarre Topless Photo of Jolie, $45,500
May 16, 2013A bizarre topless photo of Angelina Jolie called “Horseplay” sold at Christie’s London auction last night for $45,500. The “Wild Side of Photography” sale was scheduled well before Jolie’s double mastectomy announcement. Taken when she was 25, the photo also prominently displays a “Billy Bob” tattoo, referring to former husband Thornton who has since been removed from her shoulder and her life.
Read more...Milton Berle’s Jokes Laugh To The Bank
May 08, 2013For $158,000 a bidder got Milton Berle’s library, including books and boxes of bound scripts and personal correspondence, but he didn’t get the comedian’s thousands of one-liners and jokes carefully catalogued over the decades. That file went for another $65,000 at Bonham’s Entertainment auction this week.
Read more...“Woz” Signed Apple 1 Appears At German Auction
May 03, 2013There are only some fifty surviving examples of the handmade Apple 1, the first computer sold by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and they’ve been rapidly gaining in value. Last year one sold for $624,000 at Team Breker in Cologne.Later this month the German auction house will offer another, one of only six still in working order. As a bonus, this motherboard sports Wozniak’s signature as “Woz.” It’s expected to sell for $260,000-$400,000.
Read more...Babe Ruth’s Last Yankee Jersey At Heritage
April 23, 2013Anything connected to Yankee great Babe Ruth is likely to excite considerable collector attention, but the jersey that highlights Heritage’s Sports Memorabilia sale early next month is certain to be a particular attraction. It’s the last one the Yankees ever issued to the slugger, a heavy grey flannel number from 1935, after his playing career with the team was effectively over. Included is the lot is Ruth’s last Yankee Player’s contract, an insult to the legend calling for a payment of $1. Not surprisingly, Ruth never signed. Heritage expects it will take over $300,000 to take the items home.
Read more...See The Movie, Buy Robinson’s Glove, $1m
April 16, 2013This online auction couldn’t come at a better time for the Robinson family, putting up Jackie’s World Series, game-worn glove just as his biographical movie, “42,” is released. No question the glove was used—hard and long. Steiner Sports Auctions says it was found in an office Robinson once rented. It was authenticated by photo matching. High estimate is $1m.
Read more...Star Trek Gun Commands $231,000
April 08, 2013For Trekkies, the provenance was hard to beat. Even so, the price was unexpected. At a Los Angeles auction this weekend, a prop gun created for William Shatner to use in the second episode of the 1960s series “Star Trek” sold for a whopping $231,000. That was over four times its $50,000 estimate.
Read more...Beatles Signed Album Goes For A Maniacal $290,000
April 02, 2013Put it down to crazed Beatlemania or shrewd investment, whatever the reason, a Midwesterner bought a signed 1967 album of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for $290,500 at a Heritage auction over the weekend. Prior to that the highest price paid for a different signed Beatles album was $150,000.
Read more...Faulkner’s Nobel Medal For Sale
March 28, 2013After years of writing in obscurity William Faulkner rose to prominence as one of the pre-eminent writers of the 20th Century, capped by the award of a Nobel medal in 1949. At Sotheby’s in June, his family is selling the medal along with a trove of manuscripts, unpublished letters he wrote to his wife from Hollywood, even a handwritten draft of the speech he gave accepting the Nobel.
Read more...Two 1913 Dodgers Uniforms Surface
March 15, 2013Major League game jerseys from baseball’s so-called Deadball period—from about 1900 to 1919, when Babe Ruth ushered in the power-hitting era—are rare as old baseball stadiums. This makes Heritage’s recent discovery of two 1913 game worn Brooklyn Superbas/Dodgers uniforms even more unusual. One is a white home jersey, the other a gray uniform for away games. Both belonged to southpaw pitcher Earl Hershey Yingling, who spent two of his five years in the majors with the Dodgers. Heritage hasn’t released an estimate for the items, which are being sold separately, but they’re sure to ignite some major bidding at the auction house’s May Sports Auction.
Read more...Jokes & Memorabilia From Milton Berle At Bonhams
March 12, 2013Comedy great Milton Berle spent some 85 of his 94 years on earth in show business, and most of them are documented in the archive that Bonhams will be offering this spring in Los Angeles. Included is his collection of working scripts, covering his years in vaudeville, radio, television and film (est. $80,000-$100,000), as well as his voluminous private joke file (est. $10,000-$15,000), and working script from “Let’s Make Love,” the film in which he appeared with Marilyn Monroe (est. $800-$1200).
Read more...Medals Of WWII Ace May Bring $181,000
March 04, 2013Few World War II pilots had flying careers as distinguished at the RAF’s Wing Commander Bransome Burbridge. In World War II he shot down 21 enemy aircraft. Not only did he claim four of Hitler’s planes in a single sortie, he also shot down three German V1 flying bombs hurtling toward residential areas of London. For these exploits he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Now that the 92-year old is suffering from Alzheimer’s, however, his family has announced they’ll offer his medals, flight jacket and other memorabilia to help pay for his care. When they come up for sale at UK-based auctioneer Dix Noonan Webb, they’re expected to sell for as much as $181,000.
Read more...First Baseball Card, 1863
February 28, 2013Babe Ruth’s heyday was still 60-years away when baseball impresario George Wright issued what’s believed to be the first baseball card (featuring himself as a player). It’s known as the “Grand Match at Hoboken” card promoting a 1863 3-day New Jersey event, including 2 days of cricket, and one day of baseball. Opening reserve at the April Robert Edward Auction is $50,000.
Read more...Brando’s Golden Globe Seeks Gold
February 21, 2013It’s not as big, doesn’t weight as much, and isn’t as professionally important as an Oscar, but the Golden Globe awarded to Marlon Brando for “On The Waterfront” in 1954, will be auctioned by Heritage next Month. At least he accepted that one. The 1972 “Godfather” Globe that Brando rejected sold two years ago for $24,000.
Read more...JFK’s Bomber Jacket Goes For $570,000
February 18, 2013When Jack Kennedy rode on Air Force One, they gave him a personal leather bomber jacket with the Great Seal of The President on it. After JFK was assassinated 50-years ago, the jacket went to his close friend and aide, David Powers whose family consigned it to John McInnis Auctioneers. It sold yesterday for $570,000 in Cambridge, MA.
Read more...Rare Winston Churchill Poem At Bonhams
February 08, 2013Sir Winston Churchill was of course a man of protean accomplishments: soldier, diplomat, Nobel-prize winner for literature, sometime painter, and of course the statesman who led Great Britain through World War II. He was also, it turns out, a poet, although not a prolific one. He wrote only one known poem as an adult, which Bonhams will offer in a sale of retired manuscript dealer Roy Davids’ collection this spring in London. The 40-line opus, penned in blue crayon over two pages, is expected to sell for $18,833-$23,500.
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