Thomas Armat's 1947 Oscar expected to bring $60,000+

The Oscar awarded to inventor Thomas Armat in 1947 will star at Heritage Auctions

The special Oscar awarded to Thomas Armat in 1947 has just been consigned to Heritage Auctions' Entertainment Memorabilia sale, which is to be held July 24.

A bargain for collectors?

The award was presented to Armat after he championed the world's first patented film projector. Together with the famed Thomas Edison and Charles Jenkins, Armat co-invented what would later become known as the Vitascope, allowing moving pictures to be seen across the globe for the very first time.

The plaque at the base of the statuette reads: "To Thomas Armat, One of the small group of pioneers whose belief in a new medium and whose contributions to its development blazed the trail along which the motion picture has progressed in their lifetime from obscurity to worldwide acclaim".

The award was consigned to auction directly from Armat's descendants and is expected to achieve in excess of $60,000 in the sale. However, this may be a modest estimate from Heritage given the prices achieved by other Academy Awards at auction.

Recently, three Oscars presented to Leon Shamroy realised £339,341, highlighting the popularity of the coveted golden statuettes. Similarly, the Academy Award given to Orson Welles for Citizen Kane sold for $861,542 in late 2011. However, the highest price achieved at auction thus far goes to producer David O Selznick's trophy for Gone with the Wind, which was snapped up by Michael Jackson for $1.5m in 1999.

Paul Fraser Collectibles has a superb range of film memorabilia here. Remember another of Hollywood's earliest pioneers with this s