A special effects axe used by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 horror film The Shining is among hundreds of items from director Stanley Kubrick's personal archive going up for sale. Nicholson's character, Jack Torrance, used the axe in the film, and it has a list price of between £30,000 and £50,000.
The auction will also feature other memorabilia from The Shining, including two sky-blue dresses worn by the twin sisters Alexa and Alexie Grady. A clapperboard from the film will also be sold, alongside clapperboards from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon, and Eyes Wide Shut.
The lot anticipated to achieve the highest price is a model of a cosmic foetus, known as the “star child prop,” from the final scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This item is predicted to fetch as much as ��800,000. Claire Tole-Moir, head of popular culture at Bonhams, described it as “the final, enigmatic image of one of cinema’s most influential science fiction films.”
Other items in the sale include Kubrick's personal film scripts with his annotations, drawings, and alternative scenes, as well as his director’s chair, valued at up to £12,000. His personal chess set will also be auctioned, which Tole-Moir stated best illustrated Kubrick’s personality.