Bruce Lee Literature Sells for in Excess of £110k Stanley Gibbons today announce the sale of two items of Bruce Lee memorabilia for in excess of £110k.
News-Antique.com - Jul 06,2010 - Bruce Lee’s handwritten copy of the famous poem “Thinking (the man who thinks he can)” by Walter Wintle and his personal notebook carrying notes and pictures for the book (The Tao of Gung Fu), were sold as part of a deal to a Hong Kong investor, after featuring in a Stanley Gibbons investment newsletter earlier the same week.
“This is the most detailed notebook of Bruce Lee's that we have ever seen” said Stanley Gibbons Investment Director, Keith Heddle.
Bruce Lee’s films continue to have a massive following and his world famous karate academy is thriving, with reports this month that the academy is venturing into India for the first time.
Unsurprisingly, autographs and memorabilia relating to the legend continue to rise in price:
Fraser’s Autographs, a division of the Stanley Gibbons Group of Companies, track the top 100 most sought-after autographs in the Fraser’s Rarities Index, comparing retail prices in 1997 to today's market value. The index shows a Bruce Lee signed album page increasing in value by more than 530% in the thirteen year period- a compound annual growth rate of over 15%.
But these were no mere album pages:
The spiral bound notebook, measuring 8.5x11", contained over thirty five pages in Bruce Lee's handwriting and numerous, original martial art drawings for the book that would later be finished by martial arts expert, John Little and finally published in 1997, almost 25 years after Bruce Lee’s death.
The Wintle poem, transcribed by Lee, is an ode to self belief and willpower, the code by which he lived and which inspired and still inspires so many others.
“He was a man who drove himself in the pursuit of excellence and who was never afraid to go against the norm; a man who mastered his anger and turned it in to a creative force.
A man who achieved so much and died so young is always an attractive investment, as autographs and memorabilia are so rare. Our client is delighted to have secured two such evocative items for his portfolio”, said Heddle.
Stanley Gibbons have since secured one more piece of Bruce Lee memorabilia- A 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book bearing annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, bearing an address label for Lee’s home in Seattle.
With the growth currently being witnessed in the Asian collectibles market it won’t be long before this unique piece disappears into the collection of another savvy investor.
