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Lauren Bacall brings a white-glove sale for Bonhams
Every lot in Bonhams 700-plus piece collection from the estate of the late actress sold in New York Tuesday and Wednesday, with the top jewels including signed Schlumberger designs along with diamond and colored gemstone pieces.
Top lots in the jewelry collection were a 14-karat gold chain necklace from Tiffany & Co. that sold for $52,500; a diamond, amethyst, and turquoise Schlumberger ring that garnered $52,500; and a signed 18-karat gold and diamond Schlumberger bracelet that went for $50,000.
A second Schlumberger 18-karat gold bracelet, a blue enamel and gold bangle, sold for $35,000, and a carved turquoise and enamel necklace garnered $35,000.
Born Betty Joan Perske in 1924 in New York, Bacall was a fashion model before she hit it big time on film. She was only 19 when she made her on-screen debut in To Have and Have Not alongside Humphrey Bogart.
The two would go on to be filmed in Key Largo, The Big Sleep and Dark Passage together as well.
They married in 1945 and had two children. They remained married until Bogart’s died of lung cancer in 1957. She later had a third child with her second husband, Jason Robards.
Bacall, who starred in more than 30 films over the course of her career, died in August at the age of 89 and Bonhams was tapped to auction off more than 700 items from her estate.
Rounding out the top lots jewelry lots was a Mogul-inspired camel brooch for $23,750, and a pair of ear clips with suspended amethysts, sapphires and emeralds that garnered $22,500.
In addition to the jewelry, the Bacall Collection included many other items from her estate--art, English and French 18th- and 19th-century furniture, and luggage.
One notable item of interest from Tuesday’s portion of the auction was Humphrey Bogart’s brass inset black granite and wrought iron games table from the first half of the 20th century, which sold for nearly nine times its pre-sale estimate when it went for $26,250.
On Wednesday, a piece of art from Albert Edward York, Landscape with Trees; and A Country Fence, garnered $161,000.
There was also a lot of buzz around Bacall’s Louis Vuitton luggage set--a monogrammed steamer trunk garnered $43,750, and an assembled set of four monogrammed hard-sided suitcases sold for $40,000.
All told, the 740 lots in the two-day auction totaled $3.64 million.
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