One of the most iconic props in Hollywood history comes from the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz,” and it recently sold at auction for nearly $500,000.
Described as the “most famous and recognizable timepiece in film history,” Margaret Hamilton’s “Wicked Witch of the West” hourglass from the 1939 MGM film sold on December 17 for $495,000, according to Heritage Auctions.
The scene with the hourglass comes after Dorothy is captured and taken to the Wicked Witch’s castle, with the help of the witch’s flying monkeys, The Hollywood Reporter noted.
The Wicked Witch then holds the hourglass upside down and tells the girl from Kansas, “Do you see that? That’s how much longer you’ve got to be alive! And it isn’t long, my pretty! It isn’t long! I can’t wait forever to get those shoes!”
The hourglass the Wicked Witch of the West used to taunt Dorothy with in The Wizard of Oz, has sold for $495,000 at auction. pic.twitter.com/mrRveBGkon
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) December 25, 2022
According to the description on the auction site, the hourglass measures 20 inches tall and 11.5 inches wide, with a “Gothic frame” that was “expertly crafted by studio artisans of wood and papier-mâché with winged gargoyles perched atop three spiraled columns. The glass element is crafted of hand-blown glass filled with red glitter (added later for display, as the glitter does not flow through the narrow neck of the glass).”
While there were many versions of the hourglass created for filming, the one that recently sold at auction was made out of wood and papier-mâché. Other versions were created out of resin and wood, the outlet noted.
The hourglass is also used during the climax of the film when the Wicked Witch tells Dorothy and her friends who had come to rescue her — Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow — that they weren’t going anywhere.
“Going so soon? I wouldn’t hear of it. Why, my little party is just beginning,” the Wicked Witch explains.
The famous prop was also used in several other films, such as “Babes on Broadway” (1941) and “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” (1964).
It was later displayed in a variety of museum exhibitions across the United States like the Los Angeles Public Library’s Getty Gallery in 2000 and Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, in 2016.