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David Bowie’s ‘Coolest Mugshot in History’ Sold at Local Auction

Published on: 1 Aug, 2022
Updated on: 4 Aug, 2022

An original police mug shot of David Bowie taken in 1976 sold for £4,940

By Emily Inge

An original police mugshot of David Bowie was one of the highlights of Ewbank’s recent entertainment auction, held just outside Guildford on July 15. The photo was taken during Bowie’s 1976 World Tour, following his arrest with Iggy Pop on marijuana charges in Rochester, New York.

Ewbank’s listed the photo, which sold for £4,940, as having been gifted as a wedding present by the officer who fingerprinted and photographed Bowie.

But an alternative report by the Rochester Subway Blog claims the photo, described by The Mirror in 2016 as ‘the coolest mugshot in history’, was rescued from the bins of a retired Rochester police officer during a house clearance in 2007, and was sold on eBay for more than $2,700 to an ‘uber fan’ in the American mid-west, who claimed to know Bowie personally.

A Sooty puppet, used on stage and on tv in the 1990s, went for £1,950

TV memorabilia included an original glass bottle of Del Boy’s infamous “Peckham Spring Water”, from British sitcom Only Fools and Horses. The bottle sold for an estimate-busting, £5,720 while a Sooty puppet, used on stage and TV in the 1990s, went for £1,950.

A concert poster for the 6th National Jazz & Blues Festival, held at the Royal Windsor Racecourse in 1966 sold for £1,300. The lineup featured Cream, The Small Faces, The Yardbirds, Spencer Davis, Georgie Fame and Geno Washington.

Props under the hammer from the Harry Potter films surpassed expectations, with an unopened letter accepting Harry at Hogwarts, used in the 2001 filming of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, selling for a staggering £15,600.

Other Harry Potter items selling for more than £5,000 included a lot comprising two issues of The Quibbler magazine, complete with pop-out glasses, and a ‘Wanted’ poster for escaped prisoner Sirius Black, used in the 2004 film Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. The iconic graphic headlined ‘Have you Seen this Wizard?’ with a mugshot of the escapee.

The next memorabilia auction will take place on November 11.

Other upcoming sales:
August 18: Vinyl Records
August 19: Vintage Posters
September 9: The Phil Eason Puppet Collection

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