Second set of Von Trapp togs from ‘Sound of Music’ headed to auction
A set of seven Von Trapp children drapery costumes from “The Sound of Music” will go under the gavel April 30, the Nate D. Sanders auction house announced today.
The lot up for bid is described by the auction house as including the following: “[a] jumper with side ties and matching shorts worn by Debbie Turner as Marta, [t]wo pairs of Lederhosen-style shorts worn by Duane Chase as Kurt and Nicholas Hammond as Friedrich, [a] jumper with suspenders worn by Kim Karath as Gretl, [t]wo sleeveless dresses worn by Heather Menzies as Luisa and Angela Cartwright as Brigitta [and a] princess-sleeved dress worn by Charmian Carr as Liesel.”
According to today’s announcement, the opening bid for the lot is set at $800,000 and interested parties may submit bids online through the auction house’s website.
If this news is giving you a serious case of drapery dud déjà vu, you’re not alone. Although the news release announcing the auction noted it has been 21 years since these costumes were last under the gavel (citing a 1994 Western Costume auction held through Butterfield & Butterfield), we could have sworn we wrote about a “Sound of Music” drapery costume auction just two short years ago. A look back in the All the Rage archives confirmed that indeed we had.
To get some clarity on the case of the doubled up drapes we reached out to the folks over at Profiles History -- who conducted that July 2013 auction. They confirmed for us that a set of seven Von Trapp children drapery costumes were included in a larger lot of “Sound of Music” costumes that gaveled out at $1.56 million (including buyer’s premium), but tell us that the costumes headed under the hammer at the end of the month are not the same garments.
Which brings up the important point about auctioning off (or bidding on) costumes from the collective closet of the Hollywood dream factory: you can be guaranteed that at one point there was at least two -- if not more -- of everything out there.
For the latest in stylish goods going under the gavel, follow me @ARTschorn
