Word: auctioned
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Subtler but just as resonant as the ballyhooing of the late Phineas Taylor Barnum was the publicity which preceded, last week, the public auction of two Renaissance paintings from the collection of Carl W. Hamilton of Manhattan. The two pictures were hung in a shadowy chamber in the Anderson Galleries. Tall candles gave an air of piety to the occasion. Uniformed Negroes stood gravely beside each canvas, so immobile, so harmonious with the austere gloom, that they were nearly invisible. Visitors hushed their voices, lightened their footsteps...
Loudly intoned by the press, these astonishing appraisals produced country-wide reverberations. The world's auction room record for a painting was a mere $377,000.* The U. S. record was only $360,000.† The record for a private sale was $750,000.** Even this last figure, in the face of the announced appraisals seemed likely to be surpassed...
...Britishers were fearful, last week, lest the famed Portland vase be sold across the sea to some wealthy U. S. art collector. A ten-inch cinerary urn found during the 16th century in an old Roman tomb, long owned by Dukes of Portland, the vase had been announced for auction by the present Sixth Duke, "owing to the exigencies of the present times." For 119 years the Portlands had loaned it to the British Museum. But last week, as it stood on display in Christie's London auction rooms, many a Britisher went for a last look. Everyone supposed...
...Amid prodigious applause the Baronet resumed his seat. He had done it again. As the charity auction began he bid in for 150 guineas ($763) a letter written by Oliver Cromwell to the Admiralty. Then the original manuscript of his own one-act play The Twelve Pound Look was offered, Barrie watched in silent complacence while bid capped bid until Manhattan Bookman Gabriel Wells took it for 2.300 guineas...
...Loft, famed "penny-a-pound-profit" candyman, was a member of the New York Stock Exchange, he appeared on the trading floor in a smart new spring suit. Knowing his reputation for being ready to buy or sell anything, friends of Mr. Loft surrounded him and began to auction off the suit. When the price reached $100, George said "sold." Into a telephone booth he stepped, removed the suit, tossed it out to the purchaser, remained in seclusion until another suit was brought from his home...