Bonhams auction - 15th December 2011 viewing and results

Today was the Bonhams Entertainment Memorabilia sale, where some 39 Doctor Who items went under the hammer.
All bar two were from the new series, with a vast majority from Tennant’s era.

But the main point of note were the first ever items of Matt Smith era items to come up at a Bonhams auction, after the spectacular sale of Matt’s Doctor costume on eBay in aid of Children In Need. 

This will be interesting.

One item I particularly liked was a 1964 sketch for the cover of The Dalek Book. The original final artwork sold 18 months ago for £3,600, and this preliminary sketch didn’t disappoint, getting £1,500, over double its estimate.

The one item of classic series, a model spaceship from Battlefield, was nicely presented on a stand with the Doctor Who logo on the base.
This comfortably realised its £5,000 estimate.

The display stand has a curious circular mirror mounted in the base, which once you see the model, is so you can view the highly detailed underside (see left).

There were just two items from the Eccelston era: an Adherent of the Repeated Meme from The End Of The World; and Richard Wilson’s costume from The Empty Child. The former doubled its estimate; and the latter was just over it.

Next in the auction was a Tennant fest: 27 costumes from 13 adventures!

Pretty much everything went for on or slightly above the estimate, except a costume for a clockwork droid from The Girl In The Fireplace. Its estimate of £300-£400 proved way out, as it went for £5,000!

The final phase of the Doctor Who part of the auction were seven lots from the Matt Smith era, all from Series Five.

Following the amazing price paid for his Tweed Jacket etc on eBay in aid of Children In Need, I was curious as to what prices these would achieve. Everything Matt Smith seems to be in at the moment, so it felt like a round without the buzzer!

First up were a set of four Smiler’s costumes from The Beast Below. These tripled their £500 estimate. The Winders costumes from the same story pretty much doubled their estimate, selling for £813.

The only unsold item was costume from The Vampires Of Venice.

But this was followed by a personal favourite of mine, Vincent Van Gogh’s costume from Vincent And The Doctor. This would have been the one item I would have bid on – I even tried it on for size!
Its £450 estimate was soon passed, and after from competitive bidding it sold for £1,250.

Simon Fisher-Becker’s Dorium costume from The Pandorica Opens also flew past its £350 estimate, finally selling for £1,375.

The Wedding suit from The Big Bang was on the mannequin display at the viewing, so had been pulled out (along with a couple of Tennant costumes from Human Nature) as the star item.

It did exceed its £1,800 estimate, selling for £2,625.

The Rory wedding suit was a lot closer to the £600 estimate, selling for £688.

Overall I would say sanity returned after the Children In Need auction, at this first Bonhams sale of Matt Smith costumes.