The Hot Bid Year in Review: The Ten Most Popular Posts of 2018

 

The ten most popular posts on The Hot Bid that went live in 2018 are… [supply your own drum roll, please]

 

10. Become Technology’s Greatest Visionary! Prop Store has the Picturephone from “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” which could sell for $15,000.

 

9. A powerful set of prints by Harlem Renaissance artist Aaron Douglas could command $30,000 at Swann.

 

8. Sold! Man Ray’s 1938 London Transport poster fetched the Way Out price of $149,000 at Swann. [Editorial note: At some point in fall 2018, I started doing a separate update post for featured lots that sold. This is one of several posts where I updated the original with the final price.]

 

7. WHOA! Sotheby’s sold Canova’s rediscovered “Bust of Peace” for more than $7 million.

 

6. A grand souvenir of the Grand Tour: Christie’s could sell a circa 1835, 61-inch-tall bronze model of the Vendôme Column for $60,000.

 

5. RECORD! A unique tile panel by ceramics wizard Frederick Hurten Rhead commands $637,500 at Rago.

 

4. TIE! Heritage Auctions sold an original Sunday Christmas-themed Peanuts strip from 1958 for $113,525, tying the world auction record.

 

3. RECORD! Heritage Auctions sold an original 1983 panel from Gary Larson’s The Far Side for $31,070–an auction record for the comic strip! Also, quack!

 

2. No one can do what British potter George Owen did. No one. A covered vase he made in 1913 could sell for $21,000 at Bonhams.

 

And the most popular post that went live on The Hot Bid in 2018 is… pictured above, and linked below.

 

RECORD! Hake’s Americana & Collectibles sold a 1978 Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi for $76,000–an auction record for any single production action figure.

 

Special thanks to Alex Winter and all at Hake’s Americana & Collectibles for allowing the re-use of the Obi-Wan Kenobi figure image.

 

And of course, special thanks to every reader of The Hot Bid! I’m grateful for every one of you, and I hope that 2019 treats you all well.