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[Gone with the Wind] . Production-Used Prop Sword.
Original production-used ca. 1850s USN sword from the 1939 Civil War epic, Gone with the Wind. Lightly etched GWTW at base of blade, heavily tarnished, otherwise fine. 33 inches.
While the film was set during the Civil War, many props were not strictly historically accurate and only had to look similar or correct at a distance. There are no battle scenes in GWTW, though there are scenes of troop movements. Another GWTW prop sword, dated to WW1, was sold by Hake's in 2014.
Provenance: Gift of GWTW costume designer Walter Plunkett to Paul McMahon, a critic, photographer and artist who worked for more than 13 years touring with Marlene Dietrich as the icon’s stage manager, announcer, dresser, secretary and escort, and later spent 25 years as an arts and entertainment reviewer and photographer with Gay Community News, Esplanade, Tommy’s Connection, The Mirror, Bay Windows and other publications. He and his husband were close friends of Plunkett and built an important GWTW collection, including many original designs by Plunkett and (according to Plunkett) the most comprehensive collection of GWTW film stills ever assembled. Sold together with a letter of provenance.
Still the highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation, GWTW has enduringly shaped popular understanding of the Civil War and Reconstruction perhaps more than any other cultural artifact. Rightly criticized for its racist stereotypes and whitewashing of the horrors of slavery, "it also represents a belated reckoning with African-American criticism that started immediately after the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell’s novel — even if it was barely noted in the mainstream white press. Gone With the Wind is one of the mythic lightning strikes of American cultural history...The production of the movie version, including the casting of Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, was covered breathlessly in the press...But the film put the nostalgic Lost Cause mythology — by that point, the dominant national view of the Civil War — front and center, starting with the opening title cards paying tribute to “a land of Cavaliers and Cotton fields,” a “pretty world where Gallantry took its last bow.” (Jennifer Schluesser, "The Long Battle Over ‘Gone With the Wind'" NYT 6/15/20)
[Gone with the Wind] . Production-Used Prop Sword.
Original production-used ca. 1850s USN sword from the 1939 Civil War epic, Gone with the Wind. Lightly etched GWTW at base of blade, heavily tarnished, otherwise fine. 33 inches.
While the film was set during the Civil War, many props were not strictly historically accurate and only had to look similar or correct at a distance. There are no battle scenes in GWTW, though there are scenes of troop movements. Another GWTW prop sword, dated to WW1, was sold by Hake's in 2014.
Provenance: Gift of GWTW costume designer Walter Plunkett to Paul McMahon, a critic, photographer and artist who worked for more than 13 years touring with Marlene Dietrich as the icon’s stage manager, announcer, dresser, secretary and escort, and later spent 25 years as an arts and entertainment reviewer and photographer with Gay Community News, Esplanade, Tommy’s Connection, The Mirror, Bay Windows and other publications. He and his husband were close friends of Plunkett and built an important GWTW collection, including many original designs by Plunkett and (according to Plunkett) the most comprehensive collection of GWTW film stills ever assembled. Sold together with a letter of provenance.
Still the highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation, GWTW has enduringly shaped popular understanding of the Civil War and Reconstruction perhaps more than any other cultural artifact. Rightly criticized for its racist stereotypes and whitewashing of the horrors of slavery, "it also represents a belated reckoning with African-American criticism that started immediately after the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell’s novel — even if it was barely noted in the mainstream white press. Gone With the Wind is one of the mythic lightning strikes of American cultural history...The production of the movie version, including the casting of Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, was covered breathlessly in the press...But the film put the nostalgic Lost Cause mythology — by that point, the dominant national view of the Civil War — front and center, starting with the opening title cards paying tribute to “a land of Cavaliers and Cotton fields,” a “pretty world where Gallantry took its last bow.” (Jennifer Schluesser, "The Long Battle Over ‘Gone With the Wind'" NYT 6/15/20)