The voluminous Burberry tote is one of the most famous props used on Succession, the HBO saga of the Roy family dynasty. It sold at auction on Saturday for $18,750.
The bag savagely ridiculed by Matthew Macfadyen's Tom Wambsgans character, wasn't even the priciest item sold from the drama, which is expected to clean up at Monday's Emmy Awards, after its Golden Globes wins.
That was a set of pink index cards containing Roman Roy's eulogy notes for his father's funeral — a speech he never gave. Beginning, "My father Logan Roy was a great man," the four cards represent the tragic failure of Roman (Kieran Culkin) to meet the moment. They have a new life now with someone who paid $25,000.
The online auction on behalf of HBO at Heritage Auctions in Dallas brought in a total of $627,825 for 236 lots. The results showed not only that people loved the show, says Heritage spokesperson Robert Wilonsky, but also that meaningful objects, and not the show's high-end fashion, clicked most with bidders.
Props often take a back seat to costumes. There's no award for 'best props', like there is for costumes, notes "Succession" prop master Monica Jacobs. But prop departments go to extreme lengths to secure just the right item — even if it only appears for a few seconds.
Jacobs shared the origin stories of one of the show's most iconic props, the scorpion in resin paperweight that Tom gave wife Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook).
"It turns out you can buy (dead) scorpions pretty easily," she says, "but they're small. Getting them large enough was not easy."
Once she had a bunch she had to soak them to loosen up the glue so that she could reposition them for maximum effect. She stabilised them with wire and slow-baked them for hours on low heat until they were dry enough to be encased. A duplicate sold for a cool $10,000.
But back to the bag: Bridget, the date of Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) at Logan's birthday party, made an unfortunate accessory choice. Tom imagined aloud what could be in the 'ludicrously capacious' tote:
"Flat shoes for the subway? Her lunch pail? ... You could take it camping. You could slide it across the floor after a bank job."
Jacobs explains that finding the perfect bag to match the script was a collaboration between the props and wardrobe departments.
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