A hat worn by Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones could realise as much as $500,000 when it is auctioned next month.
The fedora was worn on screen in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the second installment in the 5-film series featuring the adventurous archaeologist.
It has been screen-matched against footage from the film. A fold in the hat’s ribbon and a handstitched repair to the ribbon’s bow help to definitively prove it was one of several worn by Ford and one of his stunt doubles, Dean Ferrandini.
Tiny details, like the folds in this bow, are used to match props to the movies in which they feature.
Ferrandini’s widow Keefe Ferrandini has signed a letter authenticating the hat, which comes from the stuntman’s personal collection.
The headpiece was made by Herbert Johnson Hat Company of London, in a design updated for the second Jones outing.
It is made of rabbit felt and carries the initials IJ on the sweatband. Foam inserts are evidence of the difficulty Ford and Ferrandini had in keeping the hat in place during action sequences.
To see the famous fedora in action look for the film’s sequences set in a Sri Lankan village, in a helter-skelter mine-cart chase, and on a river raft.
Some wear and tear is evidence to a tough shooting environment.
Stunt performer Dean Ferrandini shown wearing the fedora during the shooting of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
If you’d like to wear it yourself, the sizing is: 13″ by 12″ by 6″. It’s a UK 7 1/4 or a US 59.
The fedora will be sold at auction by Propstore on August 15.
It carries a $250,000 to $500,000 estimate and demands an opening bid of $125,000.
Alongside it on the block on the same terms are the principle filming model of the Nostromo from Alien (an 11-foot monster of a piece), and a 6-foot Batwing model from the Michael Keaton Batman movie.
Star Wars series props including an Imperial trooper’s helmet and a blaster from Return of the Jedi. Two light sabres from Revenge of the Sith and droids from Solo and Obi Wan Kenobi also feature prominently among the top-priced items. All are expected to surpass $100,000.
Older movie fans might find themselves drawn to the leather jacket worn by John Travolta for iconic disco movie Saturday Night Fever. They’ll need upwards of $40,000 to wear it, and a lot of swagger to match Travolta’s Tony Manero strut when they put it on.
Could you wear this jacket as well as Travolta? For $40,000 you can try it on.
Movie props from popular films can raise extremely high prices.
There is strong demand for the most popular blockbusters, but cult hits and genres with dedicated fan bases – like sci-fi and horror, for example – are also great hunting grounds for collectors.
Last year an X Wing model from Stars Wars sold for $3.1 million. In 2022 a similar piece realised $2.3 million.
Ford, who also starred in the Star Wars films, is a collectible star in his own right.
The films themselves – an homage to a previous generation’s movie serials – are perfectly made for the collectibles market and will evoke strong feelings of nostalgia among buyers of the right age.
This hat’s high estimate must come as a result of the sale of a very similar hat from the same film in 2021. That went into sale with an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000 and sold for $431,250. In March this year, a whip from the Jones movies made $525,000 at auction. In 2012 another screen-used whip made just £20,000.
Joe Maddalena of Heritage Auctions described recent high prices for 1980s and 1990s films as markers of a “generational shift” in movie collecting.
Will this Jones hat go higher and confirm that move?
