One of the most recognizable items to adorn Johnny Carson’s desk on The Tonight Show is up for auction: the host’s very own mug.
The distinctive off-white and brown drinkware featuring Carson’s portrait on one side and the name “Johnny” on the other is one of several mugs used by Carson during the final years of his legendary three-decade Tonight Show run.
The mug, which is being listed by Heritage Auctions, comes with a signed letter of authenticity from Carson Entertainment Group president Jeff Sotzing—Carson’s nephew—who writes that it was used by Carson on the show and that “there are only 10 left.”
Even lookalikes of Carson’s mugs have been known to fetch a pretty penny. Replicas sold with a home-video release of Tonight Show highlights regularly go on eBay for more than $100.
Authenticity apparently comes at a higher cost. Bidding on Carson’s mug had reached over $1,550 as of publication. Another mug from his Tonight Show run fetched $1,000 in 2019.
Carson’s mug is one of more than 1,500 lots in Heritage’s Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction, which the company says features “some of the most important artifacts ever offered from the worlds of film, television, music and popular culture.”
Last year, the auction house sold a set of Carson’s iconic Tonight Show curtains for a whopping $32,500.
Also among the lots are several items likely to pique the interest of Saturday Night Live enthusiasts—including one of the antennae headpieces from the show’s early “Killer Bees” sketches.
Currently sitting at a $1,000 bid, the item bears some “production age and wear,” with one of its glittery antenna balls no longer fully intact. The listing does not specify which cast member—or members—wore the headband.
The auction also includes a couple of items adjacent to the show: a pair of face and head prosthetics from the 1993 spinoff film Coneheads, and a leather bomber jacket worn by John Belushi in Steven Spielberg’s 1979 war comedy 1941.
The Coneheads lot opens at $500, while bidding on Belushi’s jacket had already reached $10,000.
Heritage Auctions’ Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction runs through July 17.
