More than 1,500 'Mad Men' props go on sale in auction

More than 1,500 props from the award-winning television show "Mad Men" went on auction 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 the auction house ScreenBid.

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

The auction began at noon California time (1900 GMT) and concludes 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 spokeswoman 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.

"If you've got a good story, a show's going to be successful," said the show's property manager, Ellen Freund, who is curating the sale.

"We touched a period in history that people still feel close to," she told AFP last week, explaining the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning program's runaway success.

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.