A model of Princess Diana‘s personal jaguar, the door to Number 10 Downing Street and two porcelain corgis comprised some of the memorable The Crown props sold at auction last night, which raised more than $2M.
With an appearance from Alex Jennings, who played former King Edward VIII in the first two seasons of the Netflix smash, all of the props that were up for sale sold at the auction, which was held at Bonhams in London. The majority of proceeds will be donated by The Crown producer Left Bank to fund apprenticeships.
The sale of the 473 props landed around £1.7M ($2.15M), which was more than £1M ahead of the pre-sale estimate. The top-selling prop was the Jaguar used to portray Princess Diana’s personal car, which fetched more than £70,000.
Other big hitters included the Downing Street replica door, which Boris Johnson was initially rumored to be considering buying, a reproduction of the coronation chair, the world’s only reproduction of the gold state coach and a funeral procession model that was made by students at the National Film and Television School (NFTS). All received well above estimate. Smaller, quirky props that fetched a few hundred pounds each included the porcelain corgi models and a swizzle stick used to stir drinks by the Queen Mother.
The majority of the proceeds of the auction are going to the NFTS and will support at least 50 students via a Left Bank scholarship program across the next two decades.
The auction followed an exclusive three-week exhibition at Bonhams New Bond Street and 30,000 people were reported to have visited.
“It is a fantastically fitting end to The Crown to see the props and costumes raise such phenomenal amounts of money for the NFTS Left Bank Pictures scholarship at Bonhams this week,” said Left Bank CEO Andy Harries. “It was even more satisfying to see the model of the funeral procession go for such a high figure.”
Peter Morgan’s royal drama ended several weeks ago after six seasons, having been one of Netflix’s biggest hits over the past decade.
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