Note that Brandon's report links to my October 2018 report, which I updated a couple of weeks back following discussions with Nick Farmer - and I’ve said the helmet and shoulder armour are Tour pieces.

As far as the other parts, I am still unsure - and this is reflected in my revised report. However Nick Farmer having reviewed the photographs has said they are NOT his work.

Edit- Note also that Bonhams also recently had a number of discussions with Bryce Eller -who provided additional information/proofs on the suit - however I don’t know what this amounted to as wasn’t shared with me.

Cheers

Jez

Superb research & reviews by the high council in Star Wars Costumes. Thanks for sharing on this forum, they are a great read. Thanks Brandon & Jez, & also Tom

https://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-d ... story.html

“Bonhams, together with Mr. Kermit Eller and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, agreed to withdraw from auction the Darth Vader costume from The Empire Strikes Back.”

Very interesting.

After receiving some better images of the Bonhams/Eller Vader tour suit belt boxes (thanks Jez!), I was finally able to compare those with images of the screen used ANH Vader belt boxes from my archive. Based on theses comparisons I would say the Bonhams belt boxes are not the screen used ANH belt boxes. Although they are close, the positioning of the geeblies and mesh on the Bonhams boxes is indeed slightly different compared to the screen used boxes.

I hereby correct a previous assumption.

Were the original ANH gloves pulled too, or just the Tour Suit?

My understanding is that the gloves were not pulled but they failed to reach the $28K reserve price.

Maybe the Lucas Museum bought it to display it in their museum?

I think the final word on the ANH gloves was that the bidding stalled at 28K and did not sell because that amount did not meet the unknown reserve. That is insanely low for what I believe is one-of-a-kind and the only piece of this iconic costume ever publicly offered. I thought they would sell for 100-150K. I hope the Lucas museum or the Archives made a deal for them after the close.

@Belloq I think you have the correct info about the auction. I was also wondering if maybe the Museum had attempted to acquire them. Hope so!

Agreed, $28k is too low imo. It’s likely there will be a number of people putting post-auction bids in, which will be shared with Eller for him to decide on.