Axe used by Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" is set for auction with a price range of £30,000 to £50,000. This axe, along with other film memorabilia from director Stanley Kubrick's personal collection, including dresses worn by the twin Grady girls and a clapperboard, will be sold at Bonhams in London on February 3rd. The auction features items from multiple Kubrick films, with an expected top price of up to £800,000 for the model of the cosmic foetus from "2001: A Space Odyssey."
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The axe used by Jack Nicholson as his character "Jack Torrance" in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film *The Shining* is set to be auctioned off. The prop, famously wielded during the iconic scene where Nicholson yells "Here’s Johnny!" as he attempts to break into a locked room, could fetch between £30,000 and £50,000 at Bonhams in London on February 3rd. This sale is part of an extensive auction featuring over two hundred items from Kubrick's personal archive, including the sky-blue dresses worn by the twin sisters in a memorable scene. The collection will first go on public exhibition in New York, followed by shows in Los Angeles, Paris, and finally London starting on January 18th.
Written for “Shining Movie Prop Auction” on 2026-10-06,
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The axe wielded by Jack Nicholson as he delivered his chillingly manic line “Here’s Johnny!” in the 1980 horror movie The Shining is to go on sale.
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Johnny → wield → sale
Nicholson’s character, Jack Torrance, uses the axe to hack out an opening in a locked door protecting his terrified wife Wendy, played by Shelley Duvall.
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character → use → Duvall
It is one of hundreds of items in the first auction of the personal archive of The Shining’s influential director, Stanley Kubrick, who died in 1999.
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who → die → 1999
The sale includes several other lots from the film, including two sky-blue dresses worn by the twin sisters Alexa and Alexie Grady.
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sale → include → sisters
They appear in the frocks in a memorable scene when they invite Torrance’s son, Danny, to “come play with us” as he pedals on his tricycle through the corridors of the Overlook Hotel.
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he → appear → Hotel
The boy’s trike is not part of the sale, but a clapperboard used in the film is one of four from Kubrick’s movies to go under the hammer.
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The auction will take place at Bonhams in London on 3 February, after public exhibitions that start next week at Bonhams in New York, before going on to Los Angeles, Paris and then London on 18 January.
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The lot expected to fetch the highest price is the model of a cosmic foetus that appears in the final scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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that → expect → 2001
Also known as the “star child prop” it is predicted to fetch as much as £800,000.
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Justifying the list price, Claire Tole-Moir, the head of popular culture at Bonhams, said: “It is the final, enigmatic image of one of cinema’s most influential science fiction films.
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It represents evolution, new beginnings, naivety and ambiguity.
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2001: A Space Odyssey is not just one of Kubrick’s most finest films, it is a cinematic masterpiece, and so to be able to offer this iconic prop from the final scene of the film is incredibly exciting.”
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be → offer → film
She said the auction gave “fans, collectors and historians the chance to own a piece of this remarkable collection” and that the exhibitions were “a landmark moment to get closer to some of the most iconic films ever made”.
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She said: “His scripts are incredibly special … providing us with an exciting insight into Stanley’s creative journey whilst making some of his most famous films such as The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lolita among others.”
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The Guardian’s obituary of Kubrick describes him as enigmatic, obsessive and dictatorial, and his movies as deeply pessimistic.
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obituary → describe → him
The auction includes his director’s chair, valued at up to £12,000.
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auction → include → 12,000
Tole-Moir said: “Few people had as much of an overwhelming impact on visual culture as Kubrick.”
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people → say → Kubrick
She pointed out that his work was so influential that it spawned the adjective Kubrickian, meaning marked by “meticulous attention to detail, technical mastery, precision and a distinctive visual or creative style”.
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Tole-Moir said the lot that best illustrated Kubrick’s personality was his chess set.
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that → say → personality
“He valued chess for its combination of strategy, patience, discipline and intellectual precision - qualities that would become hallmarks of his film-making,” she said.
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“Later on, during breaks in filming, he would play games with members of the cast and crew, and has often been photographed alongside a chess board.
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“Other directors’ collections have appeared at auction over the years, but Stanley Kubrick’s archive is truly distinctive in its depth, quality and intellect.
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archive → appear → depth
It encompasses not only the extraordinary objects themselves, but decades of scholarship, research, documentation and deliberate preservation.
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“It is hard to think of another collection of this calibre, nor a director who has inspired so many.”
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who → think → many
The Aporia
