Dame Edna Everage's Ostentatious Costumes Are Up for Auction at Christie's
LONDON — Dame Edna Everage was the original tradwife, except there was nothing traditional about her.
With her colored wigs and wacky cat-eye glasses, she was the creation of the late Australian comedian, Barry Humphries. Now his things, along with Everage's, are going under the hammer at Christie's on Feb. 13.
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The sale, 'Barry Humphries: The Personal Collection,' also features ephemera from the comedian's other well-known character, the lecherous Sir Les Patterson, as well as first-edition books and artwork.
Everage was a regular performer at the Royal Variety Performance, a live, televised variety show that raises money for charity. Over the years, as Dame Edna, Humphries won fans in Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana and Queen Camilla.
The auction will offer 250 lots, with estimates ranging from 200 pounds to 300,000 pounds. Among them are 30 pieces belonging to Everage, mostly costumes and glasses. The impersonator often referred to the latter as 'face furniture.'
The costumes were all designed by Stephen Adnitt, who worked for the British television network ITV.
'Stephen has a great eye and a great vision for humor, and I think he really captures that in the pieces we're selling,' said Benedict Winter, associate director of private and iconic collections at Christie's London.
The auction also includes a first edition of Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest' from 1899, with an estimate ranging between 100,000 pounds and 150,000 pounds; a Charles Conder painting of sand dunes that ranges between 200,000 pounds and 300,000 pounds, and a pair of diamante-encrusted spectacles belonging to Everage that's expected to fetch between 1,000 pounds and 1,500 pounds.
'Barry is best remembered for his comedic genius, but behind this famous figure was a true polymath and connoisseur,' said Winter.
'His passion for collecting and his insatiable appetite for deepening his knowledge was the driving force behind the acquisition of these fascinating, and very diverse, works of art,' said Winter. 'A lot of the things Barry bought were from auction houses and from dealers over his entire life. He started collecting as a teenager.'
Among the items is a black, ribbed silk evening jacket with big red lips that Everage wore when she appeared with Jerry Hall on 'The Dame Edna Experience' show in 1987, and a red gown with ostrich feathers that she wore at 2013 Royal Variety Performance.
There is also a fuchsia silk crepe evening gown that she wore to Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee in 2002, and the canary yellow embroidered dress with saffron ostrich feathers that Everage wore when she danced with Rudolf Nureyev.
A painted silk dress that depicts Edvard Munch's 'Scream' painting rounds out the wardrobe.
'Dame Edna wore the scream dress on a Scandinavian tour because Munch was a Scandinavian artist, so it must have been quite hilarious. She also once said that the 'Scream' painting was a representation of a woman who'd lost her earrings, and that's why her hands were covering her ears,' said Winter.
Humphries' wit and grandeur is evident in every item. She was quite a personality.
In 2008, Everage teamed with MAC Cosmetics on a makeup collection and when asked by WWD how she defined beauty, her response was, 'It's an indefinable thing. Every morning I look in the mirror and there I see it. I'm not conventionally beautiful, but I am very, very attractive. I look in the mirror every morning and I fall in love with myself.'
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