Relics from Camelot to go on sale

AN incomplete dinner set, kitschy looking glassware, some well-thumbed tomes — items unlikely in the normal course of events to attract attention at an auction.

But when the hand-me-downs bear the signature, Jacqueline Kennedy, Hyannisport, the interest level goes nuclear.

In two weeks’ time, Sotheby’s will sell off much of the family silver which once adorned the rooms and walls of the Kennedy’s much-loved summer residence near Cape Cod.

At the behest of Caroline, the only surviving child of President John F Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier, the items to go under the hammer will include belongings for which she now has little use or enjoyment.

In her introduction to the catalogue, Caroline defends her decision to sell off a little piece more of Camelot saying: “After my mother died in 1994, my brother and I were faced with the task of deciding what to do with her possessions, and after careful consideration, we sold some of them in 1996.

“In the intervening years, and the death of my brother, I found myself again with more houses (five) and belongings than I could possibly use or enjoy.

“As we did before, I have given anything of historical significance to the John F Kennedy Library Foundation, which will make it accessible to scholars and to the public, and I have kept those things that mean the most to me and to my children.”

Currently stacked in a warehouse in Harlem, New York, the second-hand goods, which guarantee the buyer a piece of American history, include sun-faded yellow sofas, a battered rocking chair, a couple of 60s white peacock-tail rattan garden chairs and stacks of pictures.

All the items are from the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport where John and Jacqueline Kennedy bought their home in 1956.

It was in this house John F Kennedy learnt he had been elected president and during his time in office the house was known as the summer White House.

The furnishings up for auction show it was very much a family home but they are nonetheless expected to generate a huge level of interest. As comedian Joan Rivers remarked at the 1996 Camelot auction “This is a big event, this and Halley’s comet.”

The auction, which will include more than 600 lots, will take place in Sotheby’s New York galleries from February 15-17.

An illustrated catalogue features never before seen interior photographs of the Kennedy homes as well as seldom seen candid images of the Kennedy family. The auction is expected to make in excess of $1 million.