For one night, the Christie’s auction room was filled with the fizz and sparkle long associated with the Plaza’s Grand Ballroom.

It was the Christie’s Black and White Ball, a re-creation of Truman Capote’s celebrated event. The illusion that the auction house had turned into the Plaza began at the front door, where a Christie’s doorman, Gil Perez, greeted guests in a Plaza bellman’s uniform.

Within hours, though, the fabulous people had disappeared and the Plaza props – gilded mirrors, gigantic red shades, a shiny dance floor – were being fought over by bidders in jeans and sneakers looking for a piece of New York history.

Recalling the frenzy over the Jackie Onassis and Andy Warhol estate sales, the Christie’s auction yesterday generated $1.8 million from sales of Plaza towels, doorknobs, and armoires. The top lot was a painting of the hotel by the Spanish American artist Luis Graner y Arrufi that hung in the 59th Street lobby. It went for $78,000 to a private Asian collector.

It all might be small change for the now former owner of these items, Elad Properties, which brought the Plaza for $675 million last year and is now selling condominiums there for upwards of $30 million. But it was a million more than Christie’s expected to bring in.

“It’s going to be a very expensive tea party,” a Christie’s auctioneer, Richard Nelson, said as the bidding escalated for a tea set for six and cart, the last lot of the morning auction. It went for $18,600.

At the top of the afternoon auction, Mr. Nelson introduced a “celebrity guest model” – the doorman, Mr. Perez, again wearing the Plaza bellman’s outfit, which was sold for $3,360.

Someone must really like beef served the old fashioned way, by a butler, because a beat-up silver-plated carte de bouef, circa 1920, went for $50,400, the second-highest bid of the day.

A comparative bargain was the set of Plaza towels for $1,560. But the Oak Room piano went for $42,000, and those bronze doorknobs! One lot sold for $7,200 – more than $1,000 a knob. Collections of hotel signs in the Plaza’s fancy slanted cursive went for $1,140 to $3,600.

“The excitement surrounding the auction reflects the special place the Plaza has in the hearts of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world,” the spokesman for the Plaza, Lloyd Kaplan, said. “That same passion animates our plans to restore and preserve the Plaza to its 1907 glory so it can continue to serve residents and guests for another 100 years,” he said.

That may be music to the ears of people who were priced out of the bidding yesterday.

“I thought it was a sad ending for a wonderful New York institution. Christie’s was clever to have that party and drive up the prices. But I have the catalog for memories,” Ode Nilsson, who walked out of the morning auction about midway through, said.

Those who bought were happy. Marjorie and Jerry Newman of Columbus, Ga., who came to New York just for the auction, bought a lot of Oyster Bar murals for $21,600.

“We wanted a little piece of the place,” Mrs. Newman said. “I also like the style of the painting. It’ll fit in our home,” an 1837 Greek Revival mansion.

Mrs. Newman was interested in many other items, “but they just zoomed right past me. I thought some things were not the best investment. Some of these prices have gone sky high.”

The director of New York Wines, Michael Troise, bought a vase and a chandelier for his Upper East Side apartment. “I wanted to buy a piece of living history, arguably from a hotel with the greatest reputation in the world,” he said. He recalled his memories of the Plaza: the Oak Room was the site of his 40th birthday party, his daughter’s sweet 16, and the party for her graduation from college. At a pre-sale Christie’s held a few months ago, he also picked up some plates and silverware.

The serious bidders were few in number, and many had single-minded focus on certain parts of Plaza history.

For example, if you want to sit in one of those comfortable leather club chairs from the Oak Room, then locate the absentee bidder with the paddle no. 1908.This person purchased two pair of Italian baroque style lamps, four pair of leather club chairs, the humidor, and more than 30 leather upholstered oak chairs, all from the Oak Room, for a total price tag of more than $80,000.

And about those props, the ones that Christie’s used to such great effect on Tuesday for its Black and White Ball: The Grand Ballroom dance floor went for $1680, one of the few items that went for a price below its estimate. And as for the gigantic red lampshades (from the restaurant One CPS), one bidder picked up three for a total of $4,080.

One item that barely drew interest was the favorite of the director of the sale, Cathy Elkies: items from Trader Vic’s, including soy sauce plates and a chandelier with a monkey hanging from it. It went for $4,560, with just a couple of bids coming in.

“Congratulations, I’m going to miss him,” Ms. Elkies said, referring to her monkey friend.

Georg Meyrhofer came from Vienna to buy a chandelier and brass signs for his hotel, the 25-room Alstadt Vienna.

Kathryn Benedict bought some China for her mother, who lives on 98th Street and Fifth Avenu.

Kirk Stokes and Shore Stokes, 23-year-old twin brothers who moved to Crown Heights from Fredericksburg, Va., six months ago to work in financial printing, came from their evening shifts straight to the auction house. “We try to do a lot of things that are special to New York. Christie’s and the Plaza – that says it all, doesn’t it?” Kirk said. With a budget of $2,000 earmarked for doorknobs, they came away empty handed.

An architect, Nira Ambramowitz, said this sale resembled the Christie’s house sales she usually attends. “Those sales have nice old pieces but they aren’t as expensive as the very fine collection sales. Sometimes you can find really nice old pieces at a reasonable price,” she said. The bargain, more than the attachment to the Plaza, was what got her there, but like any good New Yorker, she has her fond memories. “When I first came to America, I used to go every Sunday for tea with friends to the Palm Court, and then I took my children there.”

A senior at Vanderbilt University, Lauren Courtney, fell in love with a gilded mirror and console while she was working as an intern at Christie’s. She had her boyfriend buy the lot for $5,000. “I love the gilding. The fact that it’s from the Plaza just topped it off for me,” Ms. Courtney said.

The buyer from Georgia, Mrs. Newman, said she was sad about missing out on lots with the signature logo. “I hope when they reopen the Plaza gift shop they might still use the double Ps,” she said.

agordon@nysun.com