Personal items belonging to America’s Golden Girl, Betty White, will be auctioned off this fall at a three-day event that’s set to tour before alighting in California, the auction company said.
Memorabilia ranging from a gold watch given to her by her mother, to her front door, will be auctioned off from Sept. 23-25 in Beverly Hills after the late actress tours the world in spirit aboard the Cunard cruise line.
“This is an auction representing an incredible life and career,” Martin Nolan, the executive director of Julien’s Auctions, told Reuters. “It’s a lifestyle auction. All these items came from her home in Brentwood or her residence in Carmel in northern California, where she lived with her husband Allen Ludden.”
The most personal one is a “14-carat gold watch that was gifted to Betty Dec. 25, 1940 with the initials T.C.W., which, of course, is Tess White, Betty’s mom,” Nolan said.
The actress died on New Year’s Eve, just three weeks before her 100th birthday.
More than 1,500 lots will be on offer and were unveiled in an exhibition on Tuesday. Items include the Hollywood icon’s “awards, scripts, wardrobe and memorabilia from her television shows and films, plus furnishings, artwork, fine jewelry, household and personal items from her beloved homes in Brentwood and Carmel, California,” Julien’s Auctions said in a media release. The collection in total is thought to be worth between $1 million and $2 million, Nolan told Reuters.
Items include her original director chair from “The Golden Girls” set, on the block for $1,000 to $2,000; the first draft of the television series’ pilot, which White read while pondering whether she would take on the part of Rose, also priced at $1,000 to $2,000, as is the final script that went into production and bears her autograph; scripts from other shows, such as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Golden Girls” and “Hot in Cleveland,” some annotated by White, selling for $500 to $700 each lot.
Awards and nomination certificates, clothes she wore to various events, plus furnishings and the sunny yellow front door, plus brass cat door knocker, from her home in Brentwood, LA Magazine said. That will go for between $2,000 and $3,000.
Before the actual auction, parts of the collection will sail the Atlantic aboard the Cunard line, departing on Aug. 5 and arriving in Southampton, U.K. on Aug. 12, and be displayed to guests. International exhibits also include one in Santiago, Chile, from May 12 through July 4 and from Aug. 1 to Sept. 11 in Kildare, Ireland.
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