Film Memorabilia

In my Daily Telegraph article this week I take a look at collecting film memorabilia, which as many of you will know is a lucrative and popular area for many collectors. Although the film industry began its expansion in Hollywood in the Twenties, it wasn't until 1970 that collecting film memorabilia became big business. In that year, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's sale of thousands of items, including 350,000 costumes, received international publicity. This turned what was a small and fragmented collecting field into a thriving global market place. Tapping into nostalgia can be a highly lucrative exercise. You can read more HERE.

What do Stanley Kubrick and Michael Philip Jagger have in common? Well today is their birthday. Mick was born in 1943 and Stanley K in 1928. Now, you'll be wondering where is all this going? Well if you look in our online catalogue of almost 63,000 items you will find a Spartacus', original insert poster signed by Kirk Douglas, from the film directed by Stanley Kubrick, and also signed by Kirk Douglas, Stanley Kubrick, Sir Laurence Olivier, Woody Strode, Alex North, and others.

The poster dates from1960, 2 years before Mick and the Rolling Stones played their first gig. Two years later, in the summer of 1964, they were touring America. This souvenir booklet featuring the band, with Mick out front, is valued at between £35 and £45.

 Well I'm in Cardiff and I've just seen the forecast which is promising; it looks set to be a fairly sunny and warm day. Fingers crossed!

Just time to tell you, before I get ready, about a lost Charlie Chaplin film that has been found at an auction in Michigan. It's a film called The Thief Catcher from 1914 and you can read more about it HERE.  It's just amazing how things keep on turning up.

There's an article in today's Daily Telegraph entitled Art Sales: the market for celebrity memorabilia. It starts by making a statement and then asking a question. 

The annual auction market for rock and film memorabilia has grown from about £200,000 in 1982 to £20 million today. Are celebrity mementoes the new antiques?

Well of course the mementos are not the new antiques, they are by and large just another area of the collectables market. There is no doubting the rise in interest as can be seen by the increasing amount of space given over to such things in the new Miller's Collectables handbook. And in all honesty I think that the increase quoted is way under what the market is worth today. I would estimate that the market for rock and pop memorabilia is vastly in excess of £30 million, without the addition of the film area. Nevertheless it's good that there is such strong interest.

The article is, in part, about the British Antique Dealers' Association fair which starts next week in Duke of York Square, Chelsea, more details HERE

In my Collectors' corner column this time I have looked at the the rise of vintage posters. You can read the whole thing HERE