Morphy's to auction famed Hollywood animator Frank Andrina's antique armor & swords, Feb. 25 On Feb. 25, Morphy's will auction famed Hollywood animator and director Frank Andrina's personal lifetime collection of antique armor and swords.
News-Antique.com - Jan 16,2012 - DENVER, Pa. – On Feb. 25, visitors to Morphy Auctions’ gallery will be transported back to “days of old when knights were bold,” with the auction of an antique armor collection belonging to renowned animator and film director Frank Andrina. In all, 40 lots will be offered, with contents ranging from helmets, swords and other weaponry to breastplates and dramatic full suits of armor.
Known as “the most chivalrous man in Hollywood” because of his lifelong interest in swordsmanship and antique armor, Andrina was a competitive fencer as a youth and won numerous championship awards. Also a one-time student of metallurgy and an appraiser of Bronze Age metals, he started collecting swords in the 1950s. As his knowledge increased and his preferences became more focused, Andrina graduated to collecting period arms and armor of the 13th through 17th centuries.
The most imposing piece in the collection is a composite suit of full standing armor, most of its pieces dating to around 1560. Standing approximately 75 inches tall, the suit is in very good to excellent condition. It is expected to sell in the $30,000-$50,000 range.
A favorite sword in the Andrina collection is a circa-1580 German production with flambé blade and deeply stamped haft. One side of the handle is marked “SDIOSDI,” while the other bears the sacred “IHS” monogram. The 75-inch-long sword could fetch $10,000-$15,000.
Constructed entirely of hand-forged steel, a circa-16th-century mace incorporates six unusual arrowhead-spiked flanges. Each flange features the touch mark of a shield with cross and the initials “H.K.” Nicely laminated throughout, it carries an estimate of $4,000-$8,000.
Yet another highlight is a circa-1630 Italian or German Savoyard-style helmet with two-piece skull, low comb and two-piece visor. The helmet retains the majority of its blackened finish and displays two small period restorations. Estimate: $4,000-$8,000.
“It is such an honor for us to be auctioning Frank Andrina’s collection,” said Morphy Auctions’ CEO Dan Morphy. “Frank is revered in the field of animation and even won a Golden Globe for his work. His remarkable imagination has created a living legacy that puts him in a class of his own, both as an animator and a collector.”
It takes more than six printed pages from the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) to list the complete official filmography of Hollywood’s “Renaissance Man.” With a career that started with Disney in 1954, Andrina went on to work at every major Hollywood studio, from animation specialists like Hanna-Barbera [Flintstones, Jetsons, Yogi Bear] to motion picture industry giants, including Warner Bros. [Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck].
If there is one scene for which Andrina is perhaps most famous, it’s the now-classic “spaghetti sequence” he created for the film Lady and the Tramp, in which the refined Lady and rough-cut Tramp eat from opposite ends of a strand of spaghetti until meeting in the middle.
Now retired, Andrina and his wife Barbee live in a gracious Spanish-style home in southern California, in the hills just below the famous “HOLLYWOOD” sign.
