Original Star Wars Costume Sketches Are Going Up for Auction

Designing every costume for the entire cast of Star Wars is definitely a galactic-sized task. But the job met its match in John Mollo, a British military illustrator-turned-Hollywood costume designer. Now, Mollo’s original sketchbooks for Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back will be auctioned off as part of Bonhams's "Designing an Empire: The John Mollo Archive" sale on December 11.

If you're looking to own a piece of Star Wars history, it won't come cheap. The sketchbooks from the first movie are expected to fetch between $130,000 and $190,000, while the books for the sequel are estimated to be worth $100,000 to $160,000.

Mollo worked with Star Wars creator George Lucas to create the perfect costumes for an entire galaxy. In an interview with The New York Times, Mollo’s son, Tom, said that his father "always said he found it frighteningly difficult working with people who were indecisive, and Lucas was not indecisive. He’d put the sketches before him and he’d say yes or no."

Both Mollo and the legendary director agreed that the costumes for the film should be noticed as little as possible, so as to not detract the audience’s attention from the story.

Mollo, who died last year, created the costumes for the first Star Wars under an extreme time constraint. “I think my father put it all together in six weeks,” Tom Mollo shared.

While the job seemed strenuous, it definitely paid off. Now let’s see how much fans are willing to fork over in order to get their hands on these original drawings.