Date: Fri 27-Feb-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

Windsors

Full Text:

Windsor Collection Reached $8.96 Million

W/Cuts

NEW YORK CITY -- Sotheby's salesroom was packed as collectors continued to

compete for the possessions of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The total for sessions one through six reached a total of $8.96 million

against a high estimate of $7 million for the entire collection.

Among the early highlights, the abdication desk, a George III mahogany library

table, circa 1755, sold to an anonymous phone bidder for $415,000, over eight

times its estimate.

Several pieces of furniture attributed to the designer Jansen fetched strong

prices: a pair of Empire style painted and parcel-gilt fauteuils (est

$7/9,000) sold for $145,500, and a pair of Italian Neoclassical style painted

and silvered console tables (est $20/30,000) also fared well, bringing in

$244,500. An Aubusson carpet, France, circa 1953 (est $50/70,000), sold for

$244,500, and an Edgar Degas oil entitled "Paysage" (est $60/80,000) fetched

$134,500 from Tommy Hilfiger.

Pat Kerr of Memphis, Tenn., bought 18 lots. She uses antique lace to design

wedding gowns and baby clothes, a business she started more than 30 years ago

on a trip to the Orient.

In session IV, Uri Geller bid $1,955 for an English silver medicine spoon to

add to his existing collection of 5,100 spoons, which are affixed to a 1977

Cadillac. The spoon was presented by the Duke to Mrs Simpson to commemorate a

Mediterranean cruise they took in September of 1934 aboard Lord Moyne's yacht

Rosaura. While a terrible storm in the Bay of Biscay probably occasioned the

choice of a medicine spoon as a gift, the cruise itself marked the turning

point in their developing relationship. The spoon was estimated to bring

$1/1,500.

Also in session four, an American silver presentation box containing eight

silver jacks, made in Attleboro, Mass., around 1956, and presented by Edward

R. Murrow to commemorate the appearance of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor on

the American television program Person to Person, sold for $12,250 to Ripley

Entertainment, Inc, which plans to exhibit the jacks in one of its 26 museums.

The jacks were estimated to bring $1/1,500.

A portrait of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, President of Turkey from 1923 to 1938,

ignited a bidding frenzy in the salesroom when it went on the auction block.

Five bidders competed for the silver print, driving the final price to

$39,100, nearly 100 times the high estimate of $400, from an unidentified

buyer in the room. The print is inscribed "Bujuk ve sayin Dostum Majeste Kral

VIII inci Edvard'a scvgi ve saygirlarimla 6/IX/1936 K. Ataturk" (To my great

and esteemed friend His Majesty King Edward VII with my affection and respect

6/IX/1936).

Objects relating to dining and entertaining from the Duke and Duchess of

Windsor's dining room, including furniture, porcelain, flatware, glassware,

linens, and livery suits, reached $2,181,680, far surpassing the high estimate

of $753,000.

Highlighting session six was a William and Mary style gilt and mahogany

three-pedestal dining table (est $25/30,000) that sold for more than three

times its estimate for $112,500 to a New York decorator. An English silver

flatware set, Chrichton Brothers, London, from 1930-32 (est $30/50,000),

marked with the cyphers of the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of

Windsor, which graced their table at many of their lavish dinner parties,

fetched $112,500.

A Limoges porcelain monogrammed part dinner service, Theodore Haviland, circa

1946, (est $10/15,000) was highly sought after by a number of bidders and

finally sold for $101,500 to an American private collector.

An extensive set of engraved and etched table glass was purchased by

ten-year-old Alexandra Bernardine of New York, flanked by her parents, for

$35,650. Her father said that he had bought the glasses as an investment and

would one day divide them between Alexandra and her two siblings.

Linens were also a popular item in that session, particularly a tablecloth

used as an altar cloth used during the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of

Windsor (est $5/8,000) that sold for $24,150, tripling its high estimate. A

colorful set of appliqued table settings, circa 1950 (est $5/800), embroidered

with flowers and crowns, soared to $13,800, more than 17 times its high

estimate.

The auction will continue this week with Munning's portrait of the Prince of

Wales, age 27, "H.R.H. The Prince of Wales on Forest Witch, " which at

$600/800,000 has the highest estimate of the entire auction. Future sessions

will include the wardrobes of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, more linen, and

the many objects relating to pugs, the Windsor's favorite dogs.