Kara Thrace's costume concept sketch for Season 2's "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II." (Lot 92)

My first introduction to the world of costume design sketches was in 2007 at the Christie’s Entertainment Memorabilia Auction where Christie’s auctioned off the famous Little Black Dress that Audrey Hepburn wore in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.  It went for around $ 1 million.  What was equally impressive was that the concept design sketch for that dress brought $ 100,000. 

Fortunately, we were able to acquire all of Glenne Campbell’s costume design sketches for Battlestar Galactica for this auction.  There are some wonderful pieces, including costumes for Starbuck, Baltar, his acolytes and the New Caprica Police.  There is even a sketch used for the Final Five Cylon robes as seen in Season Three’s “Rapture”.  (Of course, there are no hints to who the Final Cylon is!  Some of these sketches, notably Baltar’s and the ones for young Helena and Lucy Cain, even have fabric swatches attached.  These are all original watercolors and will look amazing framed on someone’s wall.

Concept sketch of a costume for one of Baltar's acolytes from Season 4. (Lot 101)

I think there will be some bargain’s here, especially the Baltar’s Acolyte ones.  They aren’t major characters and so won’t draw the big bidders, but still, they are great pieces with tremendous eye appeal.  The Starbuck piece and the Baltar piece will draw the highest bids of this group because they are main characters.  When you buy a piece like this, it needs to resonate with you, and costume sketches are so cool because they combine the art of costume design, with painting.

Now you may wonder,  “where are the costume sketches for the main costumes and uniforms we see?”  Unfortunately, those were done by the costume designer for the mini-series, who did not stay on, and so we weren’t able to get her sketches.  So you better get one of these as there aren’t many more!

Gaeta with the retractable, bloodied pen as Adama, Roslin, and others storm Baltar's cell.

Fortunately for the viewing audience, one of the greatest characters in history is not taken out by a whimpy pen, as Admiral William Adama punches Gaeta, thereby allowing Cottle to prevent any further damage. Still, once Baltar is safe, he manages a comical dig into Gaeta during Baltar’s trial in “Crossroads, Part II” when bringing up the fact that Gaeta tried to kill him with a pen: “And you missed, butterfingers!”

The bloodied, retractable pen.

The clean version of the retractable pen.

These metal pens measure 7 1/2″ in length, with the pen tip portion of the item capable of retracting into the hollowed out tube. The pen cap, attached at the end here, cannot be removed.

Now that hopefully everyone has read it, we’re continuing with our series of “paper” props that are pretty frakking awesome. These paper props should be interesting, considering that this is an election year in the United States, and some of you have seen some smear campaigns and the word “change” bandied about indiscriminately.

In the Galactica universe, the two-parter for the Season 2 finale, “Lay Down Your Burdens“, sees Baltar running for president. As we see before the debates, Baltar is in his lab, where he is surrounded by stacks of flyers and pamphlets for his presidential bid. Here are a few pieces from that set… and some pieces that we can see later on after his successful bid, particularly the stuff in Gina‘s quarters on Cloud Nine.

A copy of the executive order that Baltar signs.

Not the most impressive thing that the Baltar-man has signed… and not to be outdone, he autographs better material well over a year into his “term”. It’s killer material, seriously.

In his alleged post-trial reformation as a spiritual leader, spurred by the “nymph squad” that saves him after the end of his controversial trial in “Crossroads, Part II“, Gaius Baltar begins to wear robes of a religious nature. While their origin is unknown, these robes first appear in the Season 4 episode “Escape Velocity“, and are featured in later episodes while with his followers.

Usually, Baltar wears these robes while preaching the belief that “everyone is perfect” and that the Lords of Kobol are false gods. These sermons are recorded and then transmitted over the Talk Wireless so as to reach other listeners, including terminal cancer patient Emily Kowalski, herself featured in the Season 4 episode, “Faith“.