The equipment - including a Linhof Kardan color 4x5 camera, Profoto Beauty Dish reflectors, a studio strobe system, and a Fresnel Optics Spot - probably cost $100,000 when new, Briggs said. Even now that it is largely obsolete, it could bring $10,000 from photo enthusiasts who have not yet yielded to digital techniques.
The sale, whose new earlier starting time has resulted in a substantially larger crowd (as many as 700 registered bidders), also features items from the collection of the late Chester County dealer Robert Swayne.
Previews: 9 a.m. to sale time Friday. For further information, call 610-485-0412.
Figurines at Bunch's. The Fantasia figurines are among the 120 lots of Disneyana featured in William H. Bunch Auctions & Appraisals' sale of modern collectibles - including Lladro, Hummel, dolls, and dollhouse furniture - beginning at noon Thursday at the gallery at One Hillman Dr., Chadds Ford. Online bidding is also available through www.liveauctioneers.com, where the auction catalog is also accessible.
Though there are only half a dozen Fantasia lots, two of them evoke one of the film's most memorable episodes - "The Dance of the Hours," whose corps de ballet included the ostrich prima ballerina and her colleague "Ben Ali Gator" (each $50 to $75).
The Disneyana also includes figures from other early films. Among them are several Steamboat Willies, Mickey Mouse as The Brave Little Tailor, Donald Duck as an admiral in Sea Scouts, and Casey at the Bat from the late '40s film Make Mine Music. Most of the Disneyana figures should sell for $30 to $50, although the first lot, a Giuseppe Armani limited-edition Cinderella, has a presale estimate of $300 to $500.
