Followers of writer Joan Didion pay 1000’s for her sun shades, pictures, and writing desk in public sale of her paraphernalia

Didion wore the tortoiseshell sunnies whereas seated in a chair in her Higher East Aspect Manhattan condo, carrying a black shirt and a big, gold pendant. The shades had initially been listed with a worth estimate of simply $400 to $800. 

They had been removed from the one factor that far exceeded their worth estimate at the Didion property sale, which was closely promoted nationally for a month; public previews had been held for every week earlier than the sale.

Two black-and-white images of Didion together with her Stingray Corvette offered for $24,000 and $26,000, respectively, not together with a 28% consumers premium. That’s greater than you’d spend on a actual Chevrolet Corvette as we speak.

Taken by Julian Wasser simply after the publication of Didion’s Slouching In direction of Bethlehem in 1968, the well-known collection was shot at her rental on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, California, the place she lived with the author John Dunne and their daughter, Quintana Roo. The pictures had initially been listed with a worth estimate of $1,500 to $3,000 every.

An enormous walnut, oak and maple writing desk that Didion’s dad and mom had owned offered for $60,000, roughly six occasions its preliminary worth estimate of $8,000 to $12,000. A stack of nearly all of Didion’s printed books, together with Run River and a primary version of The White Album, offered for $15,000, 15 occasions greater than preliminary worth estimates. Her small Cartier desk clock offered for $35,000 after a $100 low estimate. It doesn’t even hold time.

A Victorian rattan armchair with blue-and-white seat cushions that Didion had in her houses in California and New York had been estimated at $700; it offered for $28,000. Even a stack of nondescript seashells that had adorned Didion’s dwelling gained an ungodly sum. Listed with a low estimate of $100, they offered for $7,000. 

As of press time, Stair was on lot 168 of 244, so there’s nonetheless an opportunity to get your arms on Didion’s leather-based waste basket and silver salt cellars should you rely your self a fan.

Such costs are excessive however not sudden for a celeb sale on the peak fame, when even mundane gadgets conjure the spirit of the deceased for these with the cash to purchase them. ( Didion died on Dec. 23, 2021.)

In 1988, Andy Warhol’s cookie jars offered for $247,830. In 1996, an public sale for Jackie Kennedy memorabilia drew greater than $34 million for her jewellery, images and such private results as her 1992 inexperienced BMW 325i four-door sedan. The automotive fetched simply $70,000, however her previous oak rocking chair offered for $453,500 after itemizing with a pre-sale estimate of simply $3,000 to $5,000.  

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