Tomorrow the auction house Christie’s will be selling off the creme de la creme contents of the Plaza Hotel, plucked by its curators before a liquidation sale last spring.

The public viewing, which started Saturday and runs through today, has attracted large numbers of people intrigued by the emotional value of the objects as much as – if not more than – their face value. Prices are expected to range from $500 to $18,000.

The buyers are varied, and include locals and an international crowd. “The Plaza is so New York, and so not New York. Whether you went to a wedding there or stayed there or had drinks at Trader Vic’s, it belongs to everybody,” the director of special collections at Christie’s, Cathy Elkies, said.

But what’s got New York society talking isn’t doorknobs and vases, pianos and teacups, but rather the private party the auction house is hosting tonight, a re-creation of Truman Capote’s famous Black and White Ball of November 28, 1966.

“It’s a celebration of Truman’s seminal event, and it also celebrates the sale. The ball represented the spirit of the Plaza for decades,” Ms. Elkies said.

Capote’s ball made history by bringing together celebrities, socialites, and politicians, as well as journalists, who drained the first of many wells of ink on the subject. The party honored Katharine Graham, and called for black-and-white attire and masks. Capote poured as much creative energy into its planning as he did into writing his books.

Tonight, the Christie’s ballroom will be wrapped in an artist’s rendering of the Plaza’s ballroom, and decorated with the hotel’s sconces, chairs, and dance floor – all items to be sold tomorrow.

The chairman of Christie’s, Stephen Lash, is filling Capote’s role as host, and there’s no honoree, but rather a corporate partner, Bentley Motors, which will be providing transportation for some guests.

On the guest list are people who attended Capote’s party, such as Phyllis Newman, Kenneth Jay Lane, Kitty Carlisle Hart, and Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman; baby boomer socialites, such as Jamee Gregory, who plans to wear a vintage Bill Blass dress “if it fits,” and members of the young set, such as Zani Gugelman and Lauren DuPont, who are planning to wear masks by Badgley Mischka. In other words, a predictable New York party crowd, varied in age but not so much in the worlds they come from.

“Obviously it will bring back some wonderful memories, and of course one will be comparing. But it’s unfair to compare what we’re going to see to the likes of Douglas Fairbanks dancing with Lauren Bacall,” the band leader who played that night and will play again tonight, Peter Duchin, said.

The author of a book on Capote’s party published this month, “The Party of the Century” (Wiley), Deborah Davis, said Capote picked the Plaza Hotel for its glamour and its favored status among writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, and because the ballroom was so intimate. “He definitely wanted his party to have that feeling, that it was private and not commercial,” Ms. Davis said.

The menu starts with black and white sweets – eclairs, lady fingers, and homemade white marshmallows striped with extra bittersweet chocolate – and finishes with a midnight breakfast – scrambled eggs, Plaza chicken hash, buckwheat blinis with creme fraiche and caviar, and lots of muffins.

The event is by invitation only, and doesn’t even require the purchase of a ticket. The sale, however, is open to all comers.

Of the items in the auction, Ms. Davis is most attached to the mirrors. “So many of the photographs from the party show the guests adjusting their masks in the mirror. It makes you think about all of the people over the years who have looked in those mirrors and may be looking back at you,” Ms. Davis said.

Alas, with little room in her Montclair, N.J., home, she’s thinking of buying something more practical. “I’ll probably wind up bidding on the copper pots and pans. Both my husband and I cook,” Ms. Davis said.

And if there’s any justice, some young female Eloise fan will wind up with the pair of her red shoes. “I saw a girl looking at them Sunday, and I’m sure her parents will be back. Forget Manolo Blahnik. That girl wanted those shoes,” Ms. Davis said.

While the decorating authority Ms. Gregory said she doubts the auction items will make their way into the fabulous Park and Fifth Avenue residences profiled in her book, “New York Apartments” (Rizzoli), ritzy interior designers are taking an interest.

“We’re definitely going to the auction,” a spokeswoman for the event and interior design firm Antony Todd, Caroline Kramer, said.

The interior designer John Barman said he was looking at the chandeliers. “Too bad I just finished decorating my client Neil Simon’s place,” Mr. Barman said. Mr. Simon, the playwright, wrote “Plaza Suite,” the play and film set at the hotel.

Because of the emotional factor in the auction, it’s difficult to predict what items will go for. But it’s clear that a piece of the old Plaza will be cheaper than the new. Apartments – scheduled for occupancy in early 2007, the building’s centennial year – are priced at $2 million to $33 million.