More than 1,500 Mad Men props put up for auction

New York (AFP) - More than 1,500 props from the award-winning television show Mad Men went on auction on Wednesday in an online sale driven by fan excitement around the world.

Items ranging from the yellow and green floral bedsheets on which Don Draper had a threesome to one of his fancy convertibles and Betty's engagement ring are all up for grabs during the two-week sale at auction house ScreenBid.

The show ended last year with Draper sitting in the lotus position on a cliff dreaming up one of Coca-Cola's most celebrated ads, but superfans can now shop for a slice of history.

The auction began on Wednesday and concludes on June 15. However, bidding on hundreds of lots closes early on June 13 so they can be shipped in time for Father's Day on June 19 in many countries, a spokesman for the auction house said.

The United States, Canada and Britain topped the countries to have generated the most fan traffic ahead of the sale, she added.

Each lot has an identifiable connection to at least one of the show's characters and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

The seven-season series portrays some of New York's finest advertising executives throughout the 1960s, following their creative prowess, serial infidelities and drunken excesses in an epoch-making decade.

Hundreds of the lots featured in exhibitions last year at New York's Museum of the Moving Image and Modernism Week in Palm Springs.

The auction house declined to value any of the items, saying prices would largely be up to fans.