Film Memorabilia, Furnishings a Hit at Auction

Movie fans paid more than $2.2 million for movie set furnishings and memorabilia in a series of weekend sales at Christie’s galleries that set a new record for a Judy Garland dress.

A Garland test dress consisting of a blue pinafore and blouse used for publicity photographs for MGM’s 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” was sold to an anonymous American collector for $19,800, almost $4,000 more than the previous record for a Garland film garment. The gallery’s pre-sale estimate of the dress’s value was $10,000 to $15,000.

The sales attracted a record number of memorabilia bidders to Christie’s main gallery and its subsidiary, Christie’s East. The highest price was $275,000 fetched by a pair of Italian 18th-Century rococo walnut commodes used in the 1950s by MGM in “Susan Slept Here” and “Slightly Scarlet.” The pre-sale estimate on the lot was only $12,000 to $18,000.

MGM put 179 lots of furniture, paintings and decorative objects, some of them antique, on the block. It was the first time it has unloaded any of its set furnishings and props from studio storage.

“The finer pieces such as the commodes sold extremely well, with especially high prices paid for furniture that appeared in well-known films,” said William J. Iselin, Christie’s director for European furniture. “We are very pleased with the sales results which surpassed our highest estimates.”

Other top lots were a Louis XVI-style gilded console table and mirror used in “The Matchmaker,” $68,200, an elaborately decorated Erard piano used in such films as Mae West’s “She Done Him Wrong,” “The Great Victor Herbert,” and “Sunset Boulevard,” $60,500, and an Empire-style mahogany cradle used for baby Moses in “The Ten Commandments,” $6,050.

Director Hal Wallis’ final shooting script for Warner Brothers’ 1942 “Casablanca” was sold for $16,500.

A plaid “Lollipop Kid” costume designed by Adrian for “The Wizard of Oz” brought $14,500, and a fringed suede tunic and tights worn by Errol Flynn in “Adventures of Robin Hood” was sold for $8,250.