Movie memorabilia leaves Yorkshire buyers shaken and stirred

THEY COME without any guarantee that three clicks of the heels will whisk the wearer back to God's own country but Yorkshire collectors are showing considerable interest in the sale of a pair of ruby slippers as worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz.

The replica slippers - the originals are on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington - are among 32 lots of rare movie memorabilia listed in an online auction that also features a host of other items coveted by Yorkshire folk.

In a survey by auction site catawiki, Dorothy’s slipper have emerged as the third-most popular movie collectable that people from Yorkshire would like to get their hands on.

The Aston Martin DB5 driven by Sean Connery in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger is the most-prized movie prop among Yorkshire filmgoers, followed closely by Luke Skywalker’s light-sabre from the original Star Wars film.

The 1964 Aston Martin DB5, which was driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger and Thunderball.

Other must-have items include Mary Poppins’s umbrella, the precious ring from the Lord of the Rings and a pair of boxing gloves from the Sylvester Stallone film, Rocky.

The survey reinforces a few gender stereotypes with Yorkshire women naming the ruby slippers, the Heart of the Ocean necklace from Titanic, and and Marilyn Monroe’s white dress from the Seven year Itch as the items they would most like to own.

For Yorkshire men, a light sabre, Aston Martin DB5 and the KITT car from the 1980s TV series Knight Rider are the must-have film souvenirs.

Mike Saffrie, specialist movie memorabilia auctioneer at Catawiki, said: “Movies have the ability to make us laugh and cry and can often hold a special place in our hearts.

Marilyn Monroe poses over the updraft of a New York subway grating while in character for the filming of "The Seven Year Itch" in Manhattan.

“With Oscars fever upon us we’ve seen a huge surge in interest from people wanting to own a piece of movie history and we’re expecting some exciting bidding wars over some of the special lots we have up for auction.”

Movie memorabilia is big business across the world with investors prepared to pay massive sums for the rarest items. In June 2011 the white ‘subway’ dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in Seven Year Itch sold for $5.6m and two years later the piano used in Casablanca fetched over $600,000.

Only last week, the hammer went down at £2.4m at the auction of an Aston Martin DB10 made for the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, but last year a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang replica owned by TV and radio presenter Chris Evans failed to reach its estimate of £300,000.

The catawiki movie memorabilia auction runs until Friday March 4.

Yorkshire’s top 20 most wanted movie memorabilia:

1 James Bond’s 1964 Aston Martin from the film Goldfinger

2 Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber

3 Dorothy’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz

4 T-bird jacket from Grease

5 Marilyn Monroe’s white dress from Seven Year itch

6 KITT car from the 1980s TV Series Knight Rider

7 Darth Vader’s mask

8 The ring from the Lord of the Rings

9 The Heart of the Ocean from Titanic

10 Boxing gloves from Rocky

11 Star Wars storm trooper helmet

12 Aragorn’s sword from Return of the King

13 Indiana Jones’s fedora

14 The Flying Car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

15 James Bond’s pistol from the ‘From Russia with Love’ poster

16 Mary Poppins’s umbrella

17 Clint Eastwood’s poncho from The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

18 Superman’s cape

19 Audrey Hepburn’s black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s

20 Charlie Chaplin’s hat and cane