Propstore is set to kick off its latest Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction in Los Angeles next week. One of the highlights of the auction is the screen-used Necronomicon from The Evil Dead. The piece comes from the collection of special effects master Tom Sullivan, who worked on the Evil Dead trilogy. Bidding will start at $25,000, but it is expected to go for anywhere between $50,000 and $100,000—not exactly a small chunk of change.
“This book is composed of a brown latex-coated cardboard cover filled with hand-illustrated 38 pages (glued together in pairs to form thicker pages) of parchment-color paper that were intentionally distressed by production,” reads the description of the Necronomicon in the auction listing. “The pages feature original artwork hand-illustrated by Sullivan, with his main inspiration for the imagery being Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks on anatomy. For the ancient symbols, Sullivan devised his own alphabet that he humorously called ‘Bullscrit.’ The book’s cover was made from cardboard coated with latex and is now separated into three pieces (front, spine and back) with some latex loss to the components.“
The description continues, “The interior pages are also loose from the covers. The book has been preserved unrestored to this point, though restoration to reassemble it to its original state would be possible. One of the pages that appears in the movie has been lost since the production and is no longer in the book. Additionally, most of the latex on the cover has fallen off, revealing the cardboard underneath; the cover has broken into three pieces (front, spine, and back); and the pages have come unattached from the cover. The pages additionally exhibit adhesive residue, slight tearing from use and age, and separation of the original glued elements.“
The auction also includes various make-up appliances and illustrations used in The Evil Dead, as well as the Kandarian Dagger, which is expected to fetch a price somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000.
I find these types of movie memorabilia auctions to be equally fascinating and frustrating. It’s absolutely amazing that so many rare pieces of cinema history still exist, and they’re a treat to look at, but they’re well out of the price range of most fans, myself included. Maybe one day.
