A prop gun used by Han Solo in The Return of the Jedi has sold for $741,000 ($US550,000) at auction.

The ‘gun’ was the blaster used by Harrison Ford’s character in the 1983 movie – the so-called BlasTech DL-44 – acknowledged as one of the best-known weapons in the Star Wars movie franchise.

Essentially, a not-real gun, used by a fictitious character in a movie franchise set in a fantasy world that has managed to squeeze 10 films out of one basic theme, sold for almost three-quarters of a million dollars.

The gun was sold in Las Vegas to that depository of fine taste and cultural reflection, the ‘museum’ chain, Ripley’s Believe it or Not!.

If you were wondering, the BlasTech DL-44 does not actually spew out the powerful bolt of energy as depicted in the film. It is a mere prop made for Return of The Jedi by the movie’s US art director James L Schoppe, who was given the gun after filming ended – along with many other mementos that he has kept for the past 35 years.

Schoppe put about 40 other items up for auction, including an axe used by the pint-sized, teddy bear creatures, the Ewoks, which went for $15,155 ($US11,250). He sold another blaster sold for $122,000 ($US90,624), as well as the plans for Jabba the Hutt’s ship.

But Solo’s blaster was a veritable steal when compared with the sale of an R2-D2 android used in several of the franchise’s films that last year sold for a staggering $3.6 million ($US2.7 million).

The sale of the not-real gun used by a not-actual person in a made-up galaxy far, far away, came only days after an auction in France which saw the sale of an item of comparable cultural and historical stature – one of the hats belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte, military mastermind and Emperor of the French.

The real hat, reportedly worn – and dropped on the battlefield – at the non-fictional Battle of Waterloo 203 years ago, sold for $549,000 (€350,000) to an undisclosed private collector.

The real hat used by an actual giant of history at a real battle. Photo: Getty

The hat – one of just 19 believed to exist globally – was one of the iconic black felt bicorns belonging to the man who managed to defeat pretty much most of Europe (and beyond) losing just seven out of 60 battles, set up the Bank of France, establish the odd university, abolish feudalism and found a meritocracy.

The sale was, The New York Times noted, “another sign, if one were needed, that the French emperor continues to fascinate collectors and curators across the globe”.

Just not quite as much buzz and fascination as non-operational energy blasters used by invented characters in fantasy galaxies far, far away.

But given that Napoleon left such a lasting impression on history – very much in the same vein as Han Solo – it might seem a little odd that such a key piece of memorabilia would sell for almost $200,000 less than the BlasTech DL-44.

Other anomalies abound from the pages of history. Like the $1350 paid for a piece of french toast left half eaten by Justin Timberlake, not to mention the $6870 for Britney Spears’ used pregnancy test. Or even the $55,000 paid for strands of Justin Bieber’s hair. Again, all substantial figures of history.

Would the hat have fetched more if Han Solo had worn it while flying the Millennium Falcon? Or might the BlasTech DL-44 have gone for less if Napoleon had used it at Waterloo?

Fat lot of good it would have done him, though.