Lightfoot Auction Today
By John Swartz
There is an auction of items from Gordon Lightfoot’s estate taking place Wednesday, November 26 at 11 a.m. The auction is being held by A.H. Wilkens Auctions & Appraisals of Toronto and you can view all the items for sale here.
Included are items collected by Gord over the years, some of which may have been gifts from fans, stage clothing, sound production or playback devices (amplifiers, turntables), photos of Gord, 45 RPM recordings CFOR made in which Gord was part of (e.g. two records of the Charlie Andrews Orchestra, recordings made with sister, Bev), some of his awards, school workbooks, lyrics (not the handcrafted lead sheets), sports jerseys given in his honour, items from Lakehead University for his honourary degree conferral, and some furniture.
Of particular interest is Gord’s Martin D-18 guitar. The auction note suggests a range of $30K to $50K for a price range with a starting bid of $15K. A newer D-18 of Gord’s went for $55K at the auction last year. This one is older and was used in concert. Gord’s Gibson 12 string guitar went for $350K in an action last year. There are several other guitars in this auction, but they are from Terry Clements’s estate; most of Gord’s guitars were auctioned last year.
Using Wilkens may be a step up from the American based Heritage Auctions of last year’s sale, but it’s mystifying why the executors didn’t go straight to the top, Sotheby’s or Christie’s, both of which have impressive track records for estate sales of famous musicians.
Wilkens also posted a short video of the items for sale.
The auction is happening at the Wilkens Gallery in Toronto and online (Wilkens, Live Auctioneers, and Invaluable).
There is a different auction taking place as well. This one is for Gord’s 1946 Gibson J-45 sunburst acoustic guitar. It’s online and being run by the same auction house as the one last year. The current bid is $3,100 and the auction ends November 28. You can find details here.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied)
