More than 1,200 unique lots of movie monsters, stunning heroines, and a cache of rare silent movie posters discovered above an Ohio garage will be offered Heritage Auctions’ Vintage Movie Poster Signature Auction in Dallas scheduled for March 22-23, 2014. The highlight of this collection is the only known copy of an almost 7-foot-tall movie poster for the 1947 reissue of Dracula. This rare fearsome three sheet poster showing a lecherous Bela Lugosi ready to strike his next victim could fetch $40,000.
“This auction has mystery, intrigue, and hidden treasure – and we’re not talking about the movies!” said Grey Smith, Director of Movie Posters at Heritage. “Many of the posters offered are appearing at auction for the first time and some were just recently discovered in an attic above a garage in Ohio.”
Other rare specimens from the silent movie era include a king-sized French double grande for RKO’s 1933 classic King Kong vibrantly depicts the hulking super-ape attempting to roll a band of intrepid explorers off a moss-covered log. Fresh, bright colors immortalize one of the film’s iconic scenes on a poster that spans more than 5 feet high by more than 7 feet wide and which is expected to sell for $40,000+.
A rare one sheet for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s 1930 signature shortAnother Fine Mess is considered one of the finest known to exist and is expected to sell for $25,000+.
A one sheet for Cimarron, RKO’s 1931 big budget Western comes to auction with provenance from The Berwick Discovery of Lost Movie Posters, a trove of posters discovered in an attic in Berwick, Pa. in early 2012. The Cimarron poster features glorious art by Frederic C. Madan and is expected to sell for $20,000 as the previous copy sold for more than $100,000.
The auction also features original poster artwork by artist Mike Bryan, whose photo realist paintings breathed life into the signature images used on the poster for Orion’s Platoon, in 1986, and RoboCop, in 1987. The art was created using a sophisticated combination of airbrush, ink, and colored pencil on a blueprint ghosted image from a photograph on paper. Bryan’s paintings enjoy a solid place in modern pop culture. Both make their auction debut with an $8,000+ and $10,000+ estimate, respectively.
