Science Fiction Film History Planet of the Apes Dining Bowl and Fork Props 2001

Planet of the Apes

Non-Paper Memorabilia

Planet of the Apes dinner-scene bowl and fork, created for Tim Burton’s 2001 film, contribute to the production’s visualization of an ape-controlled civilization in which human beings are enslaved and treated as an inferior species. The objects belong to the film’s extensively designed domestic culture, extending its reversal of human and animal hierarchies into ordinary acts of dining and hospitality. Production accounts describe Ape City as a thoroughly imagined environment filled with purpose-built architectural and household detail, making such tableware part of the visual system through which the film gave physical form to ape social power, aesthetics, and everyday life.

Two production props attributed to the dinner scene in Planet of the Apes. United States: Twentieth Century Fox and The Zanuck Company, 2001. One wooden bowl with metallic surface coating and one fork of an unidentified heavy material, the fork measuring approximately 10 inches long; bowl dimensions not supplied. The fork has intricate molded or carved detailing with subtle burgundy coloration, while both pieces were deliberately distressed to simulate prolonged use within the fictional setting. Their substantial scale, metallic effects, ornament, and applied wear distinguish the objects from conventional tableware and support the film’s presentation of an ape society that combines primitive textures with elaborate ceremonial design. No studio documentation, prop tags, or certificates are described, so the attribution to the dinner scene should be retained as supplied rather than treated as independently verified.

Burton’s film, released in 2001, reworked the premise of Pierre Boulle’s novel and the earlier film series for a contemporary audience, with production design by Rick Heinrichs and costume design by Colleen Atwood. The bowl’s metallic coating and the fork’s burgundy-toned ornament preserve the production’s emphasis on tactile, visibly aged surfaces rather than modern industrial uniformity. Both pieces retain intentional production-applied wear; no additional breaks, losses, repairs, or post-production damage are identified, very good. Visually distinctive pair of screen-attributed props illustrating how the 2001 production constructed ape culture through the design of functional domestic objects.

Item #9337

Price: $385.00