Christie’s held their sale of Film Memorabilia yesterday and included as lot 22 was Edith Head’s design for a pink cocktail dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast At Tiffany’s”.

Edith Head's sketch for Audrey Hepburn's pink cocktail dress worn in "Breakfast At Tiffany's"

The sketch reminded me of when I found the original pink dress from this sketch in a bedroom in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 2007, I was sent to a gentleman’s flat in Hoboken, the gentleman had recently died and it was well known that he was a collector of Hollywood costumes. The flat was, shall we say, in a poor state of repair, and the owner of the costumes stored them all stacked up on a guest bed. There was no paperwork with the costumes and very few had the original lot tags so we had to carry out a lot of detective work, contact all the auction houses from where the gentleman had made his purchases, locate original auction catalogues and try and piece together the puzzle.

This pretty pink dress was eluding me, I didn’t recognise it and neither did any of the leading costume archivists I contacted. After the third visit to the flat, I found a bunch of old film stills and amongst them was a photograph of Audrey Hepburn wearing the little pink dress. This narrowed it down considerably so we started to watch all of Audrey Hepburn’s films to try and work out which film the dress made an appearance in and there it was – in Breakfast At Tiffany’s! The detective work paid off when the dress made an astonishing $192,000 at Christie’s, New York. It just goes to show how important research is in the memorabilia market – in this case, it made the difference between a few dollars for an unlabelled dress and $192,000 !

Follow this link to view the dress at Christie’s.

Dig has been on our hols for most of August and now we are back, we have discovered a whole plethora of exciting pieces of memorabilia coming up for auction over the coming weeks. Here are Top 5 Picks:

5) Rudolph Valentino photograph signed by Valentino to fellow actress, Gertrude Lawrence.

One can only guess at the relationship these two early actors had but what a gem. Valentino signed photographs rarely come up for sale and to have one signed to a fellow actress is particularly nice.

http://www.weissauctions.com/ViewImage.aspx?id=6106bd4d-6af2-4ee8-8508-76310d74c097&g=8dd798f4-bcb1-40d7-b81d-f1e32250c388&redirect=true

4) Beautiful signed “Meet The Beatles” LP.

This LP has come from the Estate of Dr. Jules Gordon, resident Doctor at the Plaza Hotel from 1942 until 1985. Dr. Gordon treated George Harrison’s sore throat prior to the Beatles historic debut on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Harrison has written “Thanks for the jabs”. Signed copies of “Meet The Beatles” are very rare and this example has very nice clean signatures, a lovely provenance and a great link with one of the Beatles most historic performances.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/9810634

3)  The Manny’s Archive of signed rock and roll photographs.

I had the pleasure of getting up close and personal with this collection a couple of years back and there are some real gems. Manny’s is THE guitar store in Manhattan and has been for many years, serving the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Some of these cool customers gave Manny a signed photo which has been on the walls of the store ever since. There are signed photos of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Hendrix, the New York Dolls, Blondie,  Janis Joplin, Kiss, Black Sabbath… I could go on. My personal favourite is the Janis Joplin, the condition is a little poor but it’s so rare to see a Joplin signed photograph that is authentic and with great provenance like this. Check it out here:

http://www.guernseys.com/mannys%20website/Extra/index2.html

2) The Richard Gere Guitar Collection.

Who knew Richard Gere had such good taste in guitars. This auction consists of 107 lots of very nice guitars and amps. The highlight is a 1960 Les Paul standard.

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/gibson-incorporated-a-solid-body-electric-guitar-les/5482859/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=5482859&sid=4087f79d-52b4-4464-879a-c90c6d6f0f15

1) Beatles rider for gig at the Cow Palace, San Francisco, 31 August, 1965.

Very historic document signed by Brian Epstein and stipulating that the Beatles would not play in front of a segregated audience.

http://natedsanders.com/ItemInfo.asp?ItemID=34061

In the last few weeks, there have been a series of mega memorabilia auctions, with Marilyn Monroe’s “Subway” dress from “The Seven Year Itch” smashing records to make $4.6 Million. Much has been said about these auctions and the record-breaking prices achieved so I thought I would focus on a slightly more affordable area of collecting: Punk Memorabilia.

When I began work at Christie’s in 1998, a God Save The Queen UK poster would make around £100-200, in fact, it was deemed of insufficient value to even sell as a lot on it’s own so we would group it up with other Pistols posters, like a “Never Mind The Bollocks” poster. One such lot, containing these two posters, made £219 including buyers premium in our Pop Memorabilia sale in December, 1998. But how things have changed. Last month, in Christie’s sale of Rock Memorabilia in London, a “God Save The Queen” poster made £1,375 and this is not unusual. In fact, over the last couple of years, these posters have consistently made over £1,000, sometimes as much as £2,000. Buyers have come to appreciate the Punk asthetic and Jamie Reid’s artwork in particular and now understand that these images are important landmarks of 20th Century Popular Culture. If only I had had the cash back in 1998 to buy some of those posters and tuck them away …but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Similarly, other gems of Punk Memorabilia are now realising their full potential. The Christie’s sale last month also included a Fender Precision Bass owned and played by Dee Dee Ramone on stage in London in 1981. The guitar made £10,000, an unprecedented price for Ramones Memorabilia. The Clash were out-performing past prices too with an autographed copy of the “London Calling” LP making £1,625.

It’s about time Punk Memorabilia was making prices previously reserved for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and other cultural icons. Prices are still relatively affordable and the confidence shown by buyers in this market recently can only prove Punk Memorabilia to be a good investment for the future.