If you are in the market for a custom-built five-necked guitar, a pair of personalised walkie-talkies, or a set of 10 (nine unopened) VHS tapes of Eraserhead, then now is your chance. More than 400 lots of personal effects from the collection of the late David Lynch, the idiosyncratic and hugely influential film-makerwho died in January, are going up for auction.
Bidding has already opened on a wide variety of items for the sale organised byLos Angeles-based memorabilia specialists Julien*s, in conjunction with Turner Classic Movies. Lynch’s highly individual style is very evident in many of the artefacts on offer, which include home furnishings, cameras and recording equipment, as well as relics of his film-making career.
For example, fans of Twin Peaks, Lynch’s groundbreaking TV series, may be interested in a number of coffee machines, a “Log Lady” ceramic mug decorated with a faux log handle, walkie-talkies emblazoned with Lynch’s name and that of Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost, a pair of stuffed deer heads, and a red curtain and patterned rug set evoking the famous“Red Room” dream sequence.
The sale also includes items from Lynch’s films, including prop menus from Winkie’s diner (“There’s always hot coffee!!”) that featured in a key scene in the 2001 movie Mulholland Drive, prop matchbooks from the 2006 film Inland Empire, Lynch’s own 35mm print of Eraserhead (along with the aforementioned set of 10 VHS tapes of the movie), and a vintage microphone and Bakelite telephone installed in Lynch’s office while making the 1984 space fantasy Dune.
Perhaps of more interest to film researchers and academics are scripts and production materials for two of Lynch’s celebrated uncompleted projects: Ronnie Rocket and The Dream of the Bovine. The former, a surreal detective story, was planned by Lynch in the late 1970s as a follow-up to Eraserhead, but despite returning to it a number of times he was unable to get it off the ground.The Dream of the Bovine was a projectLynch wrote in the mid-90s with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me co-writer Robert Engels, about “three guys, who used to be cows”, in which Lynch hoped to cast Harry Dean Stanton and Marlon Brando. (The latter reportedly told Lynch it was “pretentious bullshit”.)
There is also evidence of Lynch’s interests away from film-making, with several electric guitars for sale, including a spectacular custom-built five-necked console guitar, built by Danny Ferrington to Lynch’s own design. Lynch was a committed musician, completing two studio albums, Crazy Clown Time in 2011 and The Big Dream in 2013, as well as collaborating on recordings with Angelo Badalamenti, Dean Hurley and Lee “Scratch” Perry.
The sale bears witness to the fact that Lynch was also a furniture designer of distinction, with a substantial amount of power tools available, including jet sanders, drill presses and table saws. His domestic tastes are also apparent, with numerous pieces of designer furniture by Eames, Knoll and other luminaries, as well as examples of his own work listed.
Lynch was also an avid practitioner of transcendental meditation, having discovered it in the early 1970s, and the sale includes an incense burner he made in 1974, and a gold-coloured statuette of Buddha.
Lynch revealed in 2024that he had been diagnosed with emphysema as a result of smoking, and was unable to leave his house during the Covid pandemic, prompting him to give up the habit. In a macabre touch, the sale is offering a selection of ashtrays and cigarette lighters, some presumably used by Lynch at least once.
The sale finishes on 18 June.