Auction of P.G. Wodehouse Collection at Freeman's Auction

[cuddyclothes]

What ho! Freeman's Auctions is holding an auction of the P. G. Wodehouse collection of Willia Toplis (does that sound one of Plum's names or what?). Including Stephen Fry's waistcoat from "Jeeves And Wooster"!


The auction is online only, and there are 191 lots, not only books, but also including a silver rowing trophy, historical portraits of his relatives, and Helen Morgan's own scores from Showboat! And much, much more. Take a look at the catalog!

Freeman's Auctions

Thursday, May 7 at 10 AM

Comments

[hot_for_jeeves]

Thanks so much for sharing!
Good Lord! Jeeves' tweed waistcoat! 😮 I can't *sob*

[(Anonymous)]

Many thanks for posting but this waistcoat is giving me a very hard time. I consider bidding and I would be overjoyed to get a costume worn by Stephen Fry. The problem is, there is no proof of its authenticity. I happen to have some experience with buying TV/movie props and costumes. I have a small collection. One normally gets signed certificates and documents from the production companies, or prop sellers. Also collectors will usually give you at least copies of their proof of purchase so you will be able to track the history of previous owners. But this piece comes with nothing. Not even with a story of how it was aquired. It's a very risky investment. Even if this costume is part of a an impressive collection with several rare and real items, it does not necessarily mean the waistcoat is authentic. By the way, even if it's real, it could still be a production-used but not screen-used/actor-worn costume. They always make duplicates and mark them exactly the same way. There is not enough information. :( All you can do in this case is believe in it and bid. Argh! :/

[cuddyclothes]

What an interesting point! I wonder if the collector is still alive so one could ask. I just took it on trust. I bow to your superior knowledge! What other costumes do you have?

[(Anonymous)]

Responsibility for packing, shipping and insurance shall be exclusively that of the
purchaser.

As Freeman's does not handle packing or shipping, we are happy to recommend shippers to our clients.

Oh... The purchaser has to organise it all. A bit inconvenient.

[cuddyclothes]

I can't say that I'm surprised. Most of the stuff is so expensive that the purchasers won't mind paying the costs. Plus I'm sure Freeman's gets a nice kickback from their shippers.

[worth_a_wound]

Do we have successful bidders among us?

[cuddyclothes]

Someone on Tumblr put a bid on the pocket watch.

[hot_for_jeeves]

I had no luck bidding on the waistcoat but watching the auction was exciting!

[cuddyclothes]

Oh, I wish I had seen it!

[(Anonymous)]

The prop collector here. I had decided to do a bit of bidding on the waistcoat but the character factor made the costume go up way too high for me. The characters are usually of greater importance than the actors.
If you look at the official Parallel Film auction held in 2009 where a whole warehouse full of Kingdom props was auctioned off, all costumes of the characters including Peter Kingdom's (Stephen Fry's) costumes sold for around £500 altogether.
And then there's this single piece of costume worn by Jeeves which is not even part of Jeeves' main outfit and it gets sold for $350/£193 (£241 with buyers premium included)!

[cuddyclothes]

Wow! And I think you pointed out, might have just been a duplicate? How interesting. Is Stephen Fry more of a culturally important figure than he was 10 years ago?