From Their Living Room to Yours
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Most anything the big auction houses scrounge up for sale this fall season is bound to be something of a letdown. After a spring auction season dominated by Sotheby’s Whitney auction and the $104 million Picasso that set a record for a painting sold at auction, there’s nowhere to go but down. But the mood is optimistic in Gavel-land. The art market has been on a dramatic upswing, and the earnings reports released by Sotheby’s and Christie’s for the first six months of 2004 showed big increases over 2003: Sotheby’s won the day with gross sales totaling $1.35 billion (almost twice the 2003 total), but Christie’s wasn’t far behind at $1.235 billion (up from $937 million).
And the auctioneers may have been silent over the summer, but the experts have been hitting the pavement – or at least Fifth Avenue – chasing down deals. This is the season of the proposal, the elaborate love letter to the newly bereaved heir, recently divorced tycoon, or suddenly bankrupt businessman. News about fall auctions has just begun to trickle out, and it’s still too early to tell which house will win the day. But it looks to be a close heat, with both houses continuing their torrid sales.
Christie’s has landed several consignments with big-time New York society connections. On October 19 and 20, three sales of objects from the estate of Audrey B. Love will attract those with deep pockets and a taste for all that is gold and extravagant. Mrs. Love (nee Audrey Barbara Josephthal), who died last year at age 100, was an heiress twice over. She was a beneficiary of both the Guggenheim mining fortune (her uncle was Solomon Guggenheim) and Josephthal and Co., a private securities firm. She met her husband, stockbroker Cornelius Ruxton Love, while traveling to China in 1926, and they indulged their passion for collecting in the very grand old style. The sale includes dramatic pieces from Mrs. Love’s 16-room triplex on at 655 Park Avenue (which is on offer through Brown Harris Stevens, who bill it as a “Palatial Maisonette”).
Christie’s is also selling the possessions of famed fashionista Eleanor Lambert, who lived in grand style, but on a much smaller budget. Mrs. Lambert, who also died last year at age 100, invented the International Best-Dressed List and was the premier fashion flack for decades. Her friend John Loring, the design director of Tiffany & Co., remembers following Mrs. Lambert around a Paris flea market in 100-degree heat, searching for antique, lace-bordered bed linens. on October 5 and 6 Christie’s is selling Lambert’s Louis Vuitton luggage, dresses, and furniture in the House Sale – the lower priced sale category – a tip-off that the goods will be priced low but highly chic.
Not cheap, but still chic, are the 29 pieces of jewelry consigned by jeweler Fred Leighton from his private collection. On October 12 Christie’s will offer a smattering of baubles, from 19th-century court jewels to Art Deco, many with A-list provenances. The sale includes pieces made for Diana Vreeland, Coco Chanel, and Gloria Swanson. Coming off the stellar results for the Doris Duke jewels sold in the spring and the splendid American jewelry show currently on view at the Folk Art Museum, it is likely estate jewelry prices are ripe for a big bump in the coming seasons. Dealers have already reported that jewelry sales, stagnant for a while, have started to pick up.
So far Christie’s hasn’t let much be known about the paintings they’ll be offering this fall. They have landed a $25 million collection of postwar art from an American collector for the November sales. This trove includes works by many of the artists on contemporary collectors shopping lists. There’s a $6 million oil by Cy Twombly (1971); “Untitled” (1977) by Jasper Johns, estimated around $5 million; and “Baby Flat Top” by Alexander Calder, a mobile pegged to sell for around $2 million.
Across town, Sotheby’s sales kick into gear September 14 through 16 with a monster celebrity sale of guitars, denim shirts, outrageous gothic and Baroque furniture, gold records, and even a pick-up truck from the estate of Johnny and June Carter Cash. Sotheby’s Katharine Hepburn sale last spring proved anything associated with celebrity, no matter how trivial, will bring out the fans, and the Cash sale should bring a whole new crop of bidders to the house. But the pick of the fall sales will be coming from more pedigreed estates.
Sotheby’s has signed up to sell a small stash of Impressionist and modern pictures from the estate of Sarabel Florsheim, a Chicago-based philanthropist and widow of Harold Florsheim, one-time chairman of the Florsheim Shoe Company. Mrs. Florsheim’s art was like her husband’s shoes: classic, predictable, and dependable – and they should perform well on the auction block. Highlights include an 1880 Seine landscape by Claude Monet, “La Route de Vetheuil,” estimated to sell for $3 to $5 million, as well as works by Edgar Degas, Georges Braque, Paul Klee, and Henri Matisse.
The Whitney sale included much horse-themed art, and this year Sotheby’s has scored another equine-rich collection. On October 29, property from the late Walter and Kay Jeffords, estimated to bring $20 million, will include plenty of art and objects related to the turf. Jeffords is a big name in the horseracing and dog-breeding circles: Kay Jeffords’s Lonesome Glory was the first American steeplechase horse to win over $1 million, and she kept a stable up until the time of her death late last year. Folks who get excited about 18th-century cabinetry made on the Eastern Shore of Virginia also are going to be excited about this sale, as the market for rare American furniture has been hot in recent seasons.
For those impressed by all things European, a selection of French and Russian furniture, porcelain, and decorations have been consigned for sale October 23 by Marella Agnelli, widow of famed womanizing bon vivant (and chairman of Fiat) Giovanni Agnelli. Mrs. Agnelli, Princess Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto, married Giovanni in 1953, already pregnant with their son, Eduardo. At the time, Giovanni was romantically linked to Pamela Harriman, among others. In 2000, Eduardo committed suicide.
The sale of more than 100 lots was prompted by Mrs. Agnelli’s decision to sell her New York apartment, according to Sotheby’s. It is chock full of ornate and expensive furnishings with elaborate descriptions such as “a rare pair of Louis XVI Neoclassical, Kingwood, Amaranth and Bois Satine Commodes.” The top lot is a Louis XVI Bureau Plat by famed cabinet maker Jean-Francois Leleu, estimated to sell for $3 to $5 million.
Aside from fine art and furnishings categories, Sotheby’s is touting a few other important objects. More than 450 rare Hebrew manuscripts, many dating to the Medieval period, will be sold on October 27 and 28, on behalf of Montefiore College in Ramsgate, England. The collection is expecting to sell for $8 to $11 million, with proceeds benefiting scholarships and education. Headlining the fall wine sales will be the November 20 auction of the world’s largest bottle of wine, a 150-liter Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley. Made by Beringer and Morton’s Steakhouse to raise money for charity, it is equivalent to 173 standard bottles, or 1,200 glasses – enough to last all through the auction season.