A Dallas auction house normally stocked with art and rare baseball cards now has a 6-foot-tall dog mascot suit that was last seen in Episode 1 of the HBO drama “Succession.” Audiences may remember a sick cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) putting on the costume and puking through his eyeballs.
Auction officials say the item was thoroughly cleaned of prop feces and is now among 236 lots of memorabilia from the show sold Saturday on Heritage Auctions' website. The furry mascot raised just over $7,800.
“Even the eye holes are mostly clean,” said Robert Wilonsky, a spokesman for the auction house.
“Succession,” the story of ultra-rich siblings fighting for control of their father’s media empire, ended in May after four seasons and is set to win 27 Emmys on Monday, the most of any series. Fans and collectors who wanted to own a piece of the show could bid on luxury suits worn by the show's cast or the vape pen smoked by season four antagonist Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard). Don't worry: a charger is included in the scope of delivery.
The auction's most sought-after item may have been a boxy Burberry bag, which was ridiculed by Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) when it was carried to a family event by an intruder. “She brought a ridiculously big bag,” he says. “What’s in there anyway? Flat shoes for the subway?”
The bag was criticized viciously. On Saturday, it was among the most expensive items in the auction, selling for $18,750.
Other instruments of humiliation include the Vitamix blender used to douse Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) in Season 4 and the prop sausages from a hazing ritual in Season 2 called “Boar on the Ground.” Distinctive wild boars from the same scene could not be auctioned because they were “somehow difficult to store,” it was said Monica Jacobs, prop master for the show.
Even the most mundane props can take weeks to make, Ms. Jacobs said. Credit cards were made specifically for the show – don't get your hopes up, none of them work – and handwritten speeches for a funeral scene were scribbled by a member of the show's art department. (Mr. Strong asked to write his own, she added.)
HBO has previously auctioned off props from the series “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 ended .
According to Heritage Auctions, the auction's sales totaled $627,825 and will be split between HBO and the auction house.
The items for the auction were selected during the filming of Season 4 in the early months of 2023, said Jax Strobel, managing director of entertainment at Heritage Auctions. He was invited by HBO to snoop around sets in New York and mark items – such as the bayonet sword hanging on the wall of Logan Roy's office – that should be put aside.
“What will a fan remember or recognize?” he said. “The things that come up often or that have a special moment or memory associated with them.”
Several costumes were also auctioned off, helping to spark the hype around “secret wealth” – the subtle combination of understated pieces that are actually quite expensive. See: the brown Brunello Cucinelli blazer that Kendall wore in Season 2, which sold for $1,875.
The show's characters “represent money,” Michelle Matland, the costume designer, said in an interview last year. “They represent prosperity. They represent position and attitude.”
Ms. Matland dressed accordingly, starting with the shoes, which she described as “the most important article of clothing on a person’s body.” Her selection of brands like Prada, Saint Laurent and Lanvin appeared in the auction with varying degrees of wear.
Some fans of the series complained on social media about the award on a blue children's t-shirt from Walmart that Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) wore in the series finale. The shirt and a matching pair of salmon-colored shorts from Old Navy sold for $1,875.
Ms. Jacobs, the prop master, believes the show's carefully chosen symbols of wealth, status, self-absorption and bad taste are still appreciated by fans.
Some of these were a headache to procure. She ordered about 20 dried scorpions for the paperweight that Tom gives to Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) in Season 4 and reshaped their tails into “attack mode.” She dried the scorpions in the oven of her apartment before one, cast in resin, was enjoyed for just a few seconds as a guest star on prestige television.
The paperweight sold for $10,000. “My kitchen smelled terrible for a few weeks,” Ms. Jacobs said, “but it was worth it.”