Monday, February 23, 2009

Ernie Kovacs/Edie Adams Auction Results

Good morning Kovacsians. Here are some of the results of the memorabilia auction that took place this past weekend at the Heritage Auction Gallery and featured items from Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams (thanks go to Ben Model for providing the photo):

The two items that interested me the most, Percy's glasses and the Nairobi Trio Masks, went for a total of $5,975. Not that much for such a huge part of early TV history. I hope the folks who bought these items will consider loaning them to a museum at some point.

In a previous post I wrote about an item similar to lot number 49125 which is at the very top of the chart. I'm not surprised this didn't get bids as its a fairly common item. I think if they had obtained an E.E.F.M.S. card for the auction it would have been a different story; it's surprising they didn't as I believe these items came directly from the Kovacs estate.

You can visit the Heritage Auction Galleries website and sign up for a free account which will allow you to search the auction archives and view all the results. The auction number for the Ernie/Edie items is 7004 and the total amount sold was $720,273.11. This amount does not represent the total for Ernie/Edie items sold as there were items from other celebrities included in this auction.

Until next time, "It's Been Real!"- Al Quagliata

3 comments:

Al Quagliata said...

Here's an interesting auction related tidbit I forgot to mention.

This caricature of Ernie was sold at the auction. Ernie autographed it with the following message: "I should never have ordered that second plate of Canneloni. Ernie Kovacs." It went for $3,226.50.

I knew this piece existed because I had read it about it at some point a long time ago. I knew that it hung in Sardi's, famous for its wall full of celebrity caricatures. For some ridiculous reason I thought it was by the late Al Hirschfeld. I even went so far as to email The Margo Feiden Galleries, who handle Al Hirschfeld's work, to ask about it. I figured it would make a great blog subject.

They never answered me. Now I know why; its NOT a Hirschfeld. Its by Don Bevan, the playwright who wrote "Stalag 17." He was also a caricaturist for Sardi's restaurant in New York City. There's a list that shows all the folks who posed for Sardi's caracitures and Ernie is on it.

Hey, its still a cool item whether Al Hirschfeld did it or not!

Ben Model said...

There is a Hirschfeld drawing of Ernie, and (luckily?) it wasn't auctioned off. The drawing shows Ernie, Edie, Betty and Kippie sitting at their dining table. The Hirschfeld – along with the Bevan and several of Ernie's own cartoon drawings – hung on a wall in Edie's house.

Al Quagliata said...

I'd love to see that Hirschfeld!