LONDON.- Bonhams’ Richard Attenborough: A Life Both Sides of the Camera sale on 21st October at Bonhams Knightsbridge made over £780,000 in a near sell out event.

Two rare Charlie Chaplin film posters led the sale of Lord Attenborough’s memorabilia and the selected contents of his houses, selling for three times their estimates.

Valued at £10,000 – 15,000, Charlie Chaplin film posters of The Kid and A Dog’s Life sold for £37,500 and £32,500 respectively.

The 470-lot auction began at 10.00 BST and continued non-stop until 17.30 with two auctioneers taking turns on the rostrum. In the packed auction room, many lots sold for well over their estimates.

Highlights included a wooden clapperboard used during the production of Gandhi, which sold for £15,000, more than seven times its pre-sale estimate of £2,000 – 3,000. A replica of the prop cane used by Attenborough in the 1993 Universal production of Jurassic Park, in which he played John Hammond, also quadrupled its estimate of £3,000 – 5,000, selling for £13,750.

“The impressive total and the fierce bidding on many lots is a tribute to the affection and respect in which Lord Attenborough was held by people in Britain and around the world. It was a pleasure to have been entrusted with this sale,” said Jon Baddeley, Managing Director of Bonhams Knightsbridge.

Lord Attenborough (1923-2014) was one of Britain’s best-loved public figures whose career in the film industry as actor and director spanned 65 years. The sale reflected not only the breadth of his own creative life, but also his deep interest in the history of the industry.

Lord and Lady Attenborough were avid collectors of British 20th century paintings and the sale also featured many works which hung in their homes in London and Scotland. A caricature of Oscar Wilde by Max Beerbohm, led this section of the auction. Leaving its pre-sale estimate of £5,000 – 7,000 trailing behind, it sold for £27,500.

In the words of Lord and Lady Attenborough’s son, the celebrated theatre director Michael Attenborough, “My parents had impeccable taste, they never bought anything as an investment, but simply because they loved it; and they lived by the firm conviction that beautiful surroundings had the power to humanise, to enrich one's relationship with the world.”