“I’ve been in auctions for over 15 years, and we’ve never had a collection of Gerry Anderson items this big in one auction,” Alastair McCrea, auction house Ewbank’s entertainment and memorabilia valuer, told Reuters.
The bulk of the sale is items from 1980s science fiction show “Terrahawks” as well as some pieces from “Captain Scarlet” and pilot show “Space Police”.
They include a rare surviving puppet head for character Captain Ochre from the original 1960s Captain Scarlet series expected to go for between 5,000-8,000 pounds ($6,500-$10,500) and a model battlehawk from “Terrahawks” which was one of the shows’ key ships, and is likely to fetch 4,000-6,000 pounds ($5,270-$7,900).
Anderson was not known for keeping his puppets and models after filming.
“They usually just destroyed everything,” McCrea said.
However a former employee called Julian Bell who worked as a driver at Bray Studios where “Terrahawks” was made, kept some items.
“He was a massive Gerry Anderson fan. And he collected these items when he worked there, and he kept it all in his flat near Windsor, and he kept it until he sadly passed away last year,” McCrea said.
Anderson’s son and director of Anderson Entertainment, Jamie Anderson, told Reuters they were lucky it was all saved.