Goblets from Gladiator, a large globe from Harry and the Philosopher's Stone and a six-foot Buddha from The Man with the Golden Gun, are among the items in a major sale, writes Joe Armstrong.
More than 1,500 lots feature in a prop art auction to be held next month. Going under the hammer are props from several James Bond films, Gladiator, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and television dramas such as Robin Hood and The Avengers.
The Sotheby's London auction from Wednesday, March 13th, to Friday, March 15th, is expected to realise in excess of £1 million sterling (€1.62 million).
It comprises the collection of props, antiques and fine art from Ken Paul's London props company, which served the film industry, including the Irish film industry, for some 50 years.
One of the highlights of the sale is a six-foot tall carved wooden Buddha from the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, starring Roger Moore. Expected to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000 sterling, it also featured in Carry On Up The Khyber, starring Kenneth Williams as the Maharaja, and was hired for Tomb Raider and Blade 2. Several items used in M's office feature, including a model prisoner-of-war ship estimated at £5,000 to £8,000, seen in Bond films Octopussy, Never Say Never Again and You Only Live Twice.
Goblets from Gladiator being sold in lots of seven are estimated at £800 to £1,950 per lot.
A large globe used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which also appeared in An Ideal Husband, is expected to make £8,000 to £12,000. Other items include works of art from Sense and Sensibility, a Venetian figure used in Billy Elliot (one of a pair estimated at £8,000 to £12,000 for the pair) and a cuckoo clock that featured prominently in Out of Africa, estimated at £400 to £600. A dressing table set, including a tortoiseshell hand mirror used by Kate Winslet in Titanic, is on offer for £1,000 to £1,200, while a snake candelabra seen on Nicole Kidman's head in Portrait of A Lady, one of a pair, is estimated at £800 to £1,000 for the pair. A lot comprising a clock in a full-sized inlaid mahogany coffin from about 1900, with a real skeleton in it, used in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, is expected to make £15,000 to £25,000.
Ms Christine Paul, who has been running Ken Paul's props company since her father's death in 1989 until her recent decision to retire, said: "The skeleton is rumoured to be the remains of the young Italian lover and secretary of the Countess of Rosslyn. After his death, she couldn't bear to be separated from him, so she immortalised him in the clock and took him everywhere with him. Much better than being buried, don't you think?"
Ken Paul's specialisation in prop art is an interesting tale of a collector following his bliss. Born in north London in 1912, he left school at 15 to work in his family's antiques business.
He subsequently set up his own antiques business and socialised with directors, actors and designers. Scott Simon, an art director, suggested parts of his collection could be used as film props.
He developed his business accordingly, known for his keen visual eye for items that withstood the scrutiny of the film lens. An avid collector, he could then collect without having to part with any of it. The first film he provided props for was The Elusive Pimpernel, starring David Niven.
Television dramas Robin Hood, William Tell and The Avengers followed, and he started supplying for the Bond films in 1962 for From Russia With Love and the Carry On series from the 1960s to the 1980s.
New films featuring Ken Paul props include From Hell, starring Johnny Depp, Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman, and The Importance of Being Earnest, featuring Rupert Everett.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
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