?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 200 - $ 300
DESIGNER UNKNOWN
Billy -The World's First Out and Proud Gay Doll. Offset lithograph poster. 476x476 mm, 18¾x18¾ inches. Totem International, New York, 1996.
First introduced in 1997 in a limited edition of 1,200 copies created to benefit an AIDS charity, Billy was so popular that London-based designer John McKitterick decided to mass market the doll. He was available in a number of different guises including Sailor Billy, Cowboy Billy, and other stereotypical gay figures. Accessories and various outfits could be ordered for him and his fellow gay doll friends Carlos and Tyson. No stranger to fame, Billy was the subject of a 1998 exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art where numerous designers created costumes for him in support of a benefit auction for AIDS charity group LIFEBeat.
