Because it's come up in an email -- I was not the bidder who alerted the seller about the armor. I never bid on the item, nor did I contact the seller in any way.
Also, I did not contact Todd Coyle about this armor, as one person has said to a third party. In the interests of collector education, I am being very upfront in this blog. I wish I could say that about my fellow collectors. Anyway, my conversations with Todd go back to 1997, when he first began selling his reproduction chakram, and in 2001, when the online auctions were in full-swing.
Original post:
Todd Coyle has been selling reproduction Xena leathers, armor, and weapons for years now (since 1997), and experienced Xena collectors are aware of his products. I've had conversations with him about the nature of his reproductions -- I've always been concerned that unscrupulous sellers would try to pass off his reproductions as original items, and I've asked him to mark his products so that everyone would be able to see that it was a reproduction, but he disagreed with me. Some of his prop items are now marked because they are now licensed products, but not all items are marked, including props he made before licensing.
Here is an ebay auction that is a combination of authentic costume, costumer's scraps, and Todd Coyle reproductions. I've heard who the individual was who alerted the seller as to the reproduction status of the breastplate, but it's still not clear to me how this was determined. There have been several bid retractions on this auction, partly due to the unusual nature of the costume.
Please note: this costume sold -- and for much more money than it should have, given it's conglomerated history (see my previous post on price). This partial costume sold for $4,000. If it appears again on ebay or elsewhere, it will be interesting to see if the buyer includes the above information with this item, or tries to resell it as original, perhaps even by separating the parts (some sellers do this frequently). This is where potential collectors need to be very careful when thinking about buying an item that is high-priced but not well authenticated.
Seller's Description -
"Xena:Warrior Princess - Original Leather Bodice worn by Lucy Lawless. Leather shows signs of wear. It is slightly worn in front where the bottom of the breast plate rubbed through the leather. Bodice has black fabric backing with stays sewn in and laces completely up the back with a leather tie. The eyelets are brass, with an outer black enamel and some of the black has worn away from some of the eyelets showing the brass underneath. There is a white tag sewn into the inside of the bodice that says: LUCY 5.2000.
The leather shoulder straps are held on by silver rings. The threading holding one strap is coming loose. Has one moulded, hard resin piece on the bottom front made to look like brass scrollwork and is held in place with fishing line.
The leather in some places on the back shows signs of wear also from the breastplate.
Breastplate: Breastplate is constructed of a hard, moulded, resin painted to look like metal. All brads and fasteners are brass and leather. The leather shoulder pads are decorated with hard resin scroll work held in place by fishing line. Inside front breastplate is lined with felt. There is a break in the scroll work on the back plate near the bottom. We have no way of knowing whether this came to Aleida with the break or if it is something that occurred after she received it.
-Lucy has confirmed that the corset & breastplate is set used by her.
Skirt: Aleida purchased the leathers pre-cut and ready to be built into a skirt. Aleida took the leather bits to a costumer and had them sew the skirt together. The fabric foundation was added by the costumer but all the leather came with the original skirt. The bits of leather with the metal brad design were already built and assembled by the Xena costumers. Comes with 3 extra of the braded strips and in the original Xena costumer's bag with Lucy's name on it.
On Oct-30-07 at 21:34:08 PDT, seller added the following information:
I wanted you all to be aware of the new revelation another bidder has alerted me about. Why the corset was set used by Lucy the breast plate turns out to be a reproduction. When I emailed pictures of the breastplate to Lucy neither she nor I were aware that reproductions of the breastplate has been made & sold. So she believed them to be hers. After the bidder alerted me about the reproductions I contacted Lucy and we discussed what the breastplate was made out of and realized that the breastplate was actually a reproduction not the real thing. I'm sorry for about this mistake, the last thing I would want to do is mislead anyone in any way. Again the corset is the real deal and set used by Lucy."
Link to ebay auction.
2 comments:
It was interesting watching events unfold with this particular costume.
Thanks for passing along great information about collecting.
It was interesting to watch -- it's too bad that we didn't learn as much as we wanted!
And just because it's come up in an email -- I was not the bidder who alerted the seller about the armor. I never bid on the item, nor did I contact the seller in any way.
Also, I did not contact Todd Coyle about this armor, as one person has said to a third party. In the interests of collector education, I am being very upfront in this blog. I wish I could say that about my fellow collectors. Anyway, my conversations with Todd go back to 1997, when he first began selling his reproduction chakram, and in 2001, when the online auctions were in full-swing.
Post a Comment