#Hot #Lots #Coming #Auction #August #WorthPoint
Summer may be winding down, but WorthPoint’s Industry Partners are offering collectors some sizzling sales this month, including a famous cow print, a historic Beatles’ archive, and a Barbie and Star Wars mashup.
With all the famous faces Andy Warhol painted, a cow might seem like an unconventional choice for an already unconventional pop artist. However, cows have been the muse of artists ever since humans drew their first images more than 40,000 years ago, and in Warhol’s hands, they became colorful and hip.
Warhol specifically created wallpaper featuring a big, bright pink cow portrait on a vivid yellow background for a gallery show in 1966. It was so successful that he made other color combinations of the cow head through the 1980s. The wallpaper is avidly collected today, but original prints go for tens of thousands of dollars. More affordable are “After Andy Warhol” prints, reproductions of his iconic works created since his death in 1987.
At its 20th & 2lst Century Design Sale on August 13, Dallas Auction Gallery in Dallas, Texas, is offering two After Andy Warhol Cow wallpaper prints: Lot 57 in the original pink and yellow and Lot 54 in blue and orange.
The Cow series is a testament to Warhol’s talent for transforming everyday subjects like the humble bovine into playful and celebrated art.
U.S. gold coins have seen golden gains since 2020 and have become increasingly recommended as a means of diversifying investment portfolios.
A New Day Auctions of Cannon Falls, Minnesota, is offering nearly one hundred gold coins during its Coin and Currency Auction, Part 1 of which is on August 15 and Part 2 on August 29. Among the gold coins is Lot 2, a 1904 $20 Liberty Head being offered during the first session.
The obverse of Lot 2, a Type III $20 coin, features Christian Gobrecht’s portrait of Lady Liberty surrounded by thirteen stars, while the reverse has a shielded eagle with outstretched wings and arrows and olive branches in its talons. The words “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” arch around the coin’s upper periphery and “TWENTY DOLLARS” wrap below the eagle.
Liberty Head gold coins, in denominations ranging from $1 to $20, were issued from 1849 to 1907. They are some of the most recognized gold coins in the world and have had different designs over their 200-plus-year history.
Perhaps collectors seek no music memorabilia more than items related to the Beatles, one of the most popular bands of all time. Whether it’s concert posters, concert tickets, vinyl records, guitars, lunch boxes, and much more, these collectibles tend to fetch huge sums at auction.
Gotta Have Rock and Roll of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, specializes in music memorabilia and has sold many Beatles collectibles, like a signed piece of the Ed Sullivan Show backdrop the day the group made its American television debut in 1964. Now, the auction house is offering more Fab Four memorabilia during its Rock & Roll Pop Culture Auction through August 24. Items serious collectors will want to note include Lot 1, a contract archive of the band’s 1964 North American Summer Tour featuring contracts and other important correspondence.
This historic collection includes twenty-four performance contracts signed by Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein or NEMS employee Bernard Lee for every city the band performed in during their North American tour from August 19 to September 18, 1964.
All of the concert riders contain the famous “Desegregation Clause.” The Beatles included this clause to support the U.S. civil rights movement and refused to perform in front of segregated audiences during their American tours.
The auction house notes that while some performance contracts have surfaced for the 1965 and 1966 tours, none have ever surfaced in a public auction for the 1964 tour, making this a rare offering.
Collectors of vintage advertising, petroliana, and pinball machines will have some literal museum-worthy items to bid on when Rockabilly Auction Co. of Hartwell, Georgia, offers inventory from the now-closed Karlocks Kars and Pop Culture Museum of Hannibal, Missouri.
One of the highlights in Day 2 of the Karlocks Museum, Advertising, Americana sale on August 23 and 24 is Lot 605, a working double-sided porcelain bullnose sign for Rexall Drugs in blazing red and blue neon.
Rexall was a chain of American drugstores with as many as 12,000 franchises across the United States from 1920 to 1977, when it was sold to a group of private financiers that canceled all franchises in 1980.
Vintage Rexall signs can be found in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Collectors love them for their history and the nostalgia they evoke for visiting drugstores, which were often community hubs.
Generally, vintage neon advertising signs, especially examples in good working condition, are valuable and sought after as works of art. Collectors especially value signs with the aesthetics of the 1940s and ’50s. These signs are an attractive and bright way to spruce up a mancave or other living space.
Barbie and Darth Vader might seem like one of the oddest couples in the galaxy, but given that Barbie dolls and Star Wars action figures are pop-cultural juggernauts, it makes sense that there would eventually be a mash-up of the two.
In 2019 and 2020, Mattel and Disney teamed up to create a limited-edition Star Wars × Barbie series of seven collector dolls in homage to the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Designed by Robert Best, the dolls are dressed in various Star Wars-inspired fashions and accessories.
At its Star Wars! May the Force Be With You! sale on August 28, Bodnar’s Auction of New Brunswick, New Jersey, offers one of these dolls in Lot 95: a Star Wars × Barbie—Darth Vader, new in its box.
This Barbie was one of three in the first wave produced in 2019; the other two were R2-D2 Barbie and Princess Leia Barbie. The second wave lineup in 2020 included Rey, C-3PO, Stormtrooper, and Chewbacca Barbies.
Darth Vader Barbie captures the Sith Lord’s armor silhouette in a head-to-toe shiny-black ensemble with metallic details. A black cape, boots, and dark glasses complete the look. This Barbie is a fun collectible for any fan of these franchises.
Adina K. Francis has been a writer and editor in the antiques and collectibles field for more than 20 years. She has a bit of an obsession with the Victorians and thinks that dogs are one of life’s greatest gifts.
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