A Dallas auction house, usually filled with fine art and rare baseball cards, now carries the suit of a six-foot-tall dog mascot last seen in the first episode of the HBO drama “Succession.” Audiences may remember Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) feeling nauseous in costume and throwing up in his eyeballs.
The piece has been thoroughly cleaned of vomit, according to auction staff, and is now among 236 memorabilia from the show sold on the Heritage Auctions website on Saturday. The furry mascot brought just over $7,800.
Even the eye holes were mostly clean, said Robert Wilonsky, a spokesman for the auction house.
Succession, which tells the story of ultra-wealthy siblings vying for control of their father’s media empire, ended its four-season run in May and is in the running for 27 Emmy Awards on Monday, the most of any series. Fans and collectors who wanted to own a piece of the show were able to bid on the fancy suits worn by the show’s cast or the vape pen puffed by Season 4’s antagonist, Lukas Mattsson (Alexander Skarsgård). Fear not: it comes with a charger.
Perhaps the most sought-after item at the auction was the boxy Burberry handbag that Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) mocked when an intruder carried it to a family event. “She brought a ridiculously spacious bag with her,” he says. “What’s in there, huh? Subway flats?”
The bag was fiercely imitated. On Saturday, it was among the most expensive lots at auction, selling for $18,750.
Other tools of humiliation include the Vitamix blender used to drown Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) in Season 4 and the supporting sausage from a hazing ritual in Season 2 called the “Pig on the Floor.” Stuffed pigs from the same scene can’t be put up for auction because they’re “kind of hard to store,” he said. Monica Jacobs, the show’s props expert.
Even the simplest props can take weeks to create, Ms. Jacobs said. Credit cards were made specifically for this show – don’t get your hopes up, none of them work – and handwritten speeches for the funeral scene were written by a member of the show’s art department. (She added that Mr. Strong had asked to write his own book.)
HBO has previously auctioned off items from “Insecure” and “Watchmen,” joining A24 and Netflix in a crowded field of Hollywood memorabilia auctions that can generate buzz — and profits — long after filming has wrapped.
Total sales from the auction were $627,825, according to Heritage Auctions, and will be split between HBO and the auction house.
Jax Strobel, managing director of entertainment at Heritage Auctions, said the items up for auction were selected while the fourth season was being filmed in the first months of 2023. He was invited by HBO to spy on filming locations in New York and customize the items – e.g. The harpoon sword hanging on the wall of Logan Roy’s office – which needs to be put away.
“What will the fan remember or recognize?” He said. “Things that come up often, or that have a special moment or memory.”
Many of the fashions were also put up for auction, which helped spark a frenzy over “hidden wealth” – the meticulous display of simple pieces that are actually very expensive. See: The brown Brunello Cucinelli jacket worn by Kendall in Season 2, which sold for $1,875.
The show’s characters “represent money,” costume designer Michelle Matland said in an interview last year. “They symbolize wealth. They stand for position and position.”
Mrs. Matland dressed them accordingly, starting with their shoes, which she described as “the most important piece of clothing on a person’s body.” Her selections from brands including Prada, Saint Laurent and Lanvin appeared at the auction in varying levels of wear.
Some fans of the show have complained on social media about the tag on a children’s blue Walmart shirt worn by Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) in the series finale. The shirt and pair of salmon shorts from Old Navy sold for $1,875.
Ms. Jacobs, the prop director, is encouraged that the show’s carefully chosen indicators of wealth, status, self-absorption and bad taste are still appreciated by fans.
Some of them were a headache to buy. She ordered about 20 dried scorpions in exchange for the paperweight Tom gave to Chef Roy (Sarah Snook) in Season 4, and reshaped their tails into “attack mode.” She dried scorpions in her apartment’s oven before enjoying one of them, cast in resin, for just a few seconds as a guest star on prestigious television.
The paperweight sold for $10,000. “My kitchen stunk for two weeks, but it was worth it,” Ms Jacobs said.