The axe Jack Nicholson used in The Shining has gone to auction, selling for £170,000 – nearly four times the sum it was estimated to fetch.
The prop went under the hammer at the Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction in London on Tuesday (October 1), Yahoo! reports. It was expected to fetch between £40,000 and £60,000, but after a bidding war sold for £170,000.
The axe, which Nicholson wielded as murderous protagonist Jack Torrance in the Stanley Kubrick classic, “is a custom made fire axe that needed to be practical for the shots in which Jack broke down the apartment door and then the bathroom door in pursuit of [Torrance’s son] Danny and [wife] Wendy”, the auction’s site explains.
A Shining crew member bought the axe at a sale of the film’s assets at the end of filming, because they needed an axe to chop wood at home, the site adds. The prop was ultimately never used for that purpose, and “remains in excellent condition, with a few knicks and scratches present from use on Kubrick’s notoriously long shooting days”. See a recent photo of the axe below:
A movie sequel to the 1980 horror classic – which was an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1977 novel The Shining – will arrive in theatres later this month. Directed by Mike Flanagan, Doctor Sleep is based on King’s 2013 Shining sequel of the same title, and takes place 40 years after the events of the first novel.
Ewan McGregor stars in the sequel as Jack’s son Danny Torrance, who fights to “find some semblance of peace” after the traumatic events at the Overlook Hotel. Watch the latest trailer for Doctor Sleep here.