The estate of the famously flamboyant British actor is everything you hoped it would be.
With everyone facing financial uncertainty over the next few months, perhaps this is not the ideal time for Peter Wyngarde’s estate to go under the hammer. But for those of you with a few quid to spare, this must be the most exciting celebrity auction since the scandal of Christopher Lee‘s trousers some years ago.
Wyngarde was the flamboyant star of shows like Jason King, the head of the Hellfire Club in The Avengers, star of Night of the Eagle and Flash Gordon, and man about town – and for those who might have doubted that his image carried over into private life, the auction will put your mind at rest. This is everything you could ever hope for.
There are the screen props – a first-rate smoking gown, a mink coat, a snakeskin jacket and several gaudy rings – and test pressings of his notorious LP. A lot of sunglasses. Various autographed photos from the likes of Vivien Leigh.
Wyngarde obviously had a taste for erotic and outré entertainment – amongst the lots ate quad posters for films like Jess Franco‘s The Bare Breasted Countess, Inga Have Lust and Nasty Habits, cardboard cut-out naked ladies and a 1975 Marlboro nudie calendar.
And then there are the definite oddities: a Jason King-shaped mirror, swords and whips, and a taxidermy lizard; and the ephemera of life – a bus pass, an unused chequebook, autographed receipts and even a toupee, complete with box. You can even bid on his childhood teddy bear.
As you might expect, the prices on these items range from the surprisingly modest to the eyewatering. Bids are already coming in – obviously, this is an online-only auction. We actually have an eye on one or two items, but feeling magnanimous, we’ve decided to share the details with you too.
Auctions like this are a rare and fascinating glimpse into the private lives of public figures. On the basis of this particular collection, we can say that Wyngarde was a man after our own hearts. God bless him, and whoever sails in his used toupee.
It takes place (or more accurately concludes) on March 26th.
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This is fascinating!
I just looked at the auction catologue and there is a film poster he owned for Bare Breasted Countess, when Nigel Wingrove of Redemption Films bought the rights to that film among many other European horror films in the 1990s and re-packaged them I modelled for the video box jacket, it was also titled Female Vampire, I have the photo on my Instagram @ladyvermilioncostume
Ahh, that’s you? I’m familiar with that edition. I worked with Nigel on various things over the years.