Objects including Marilyn Monroe’s squashed picnic basket, Pablo Picasso’s cigarette box and a Fabergé copper pot given out to first world war Russian soldiers, have gone on display as part of one of the most eclectic and eccentric auctions of the year.
On Friday Sotheby’s put on view artworks and objects from the North Yorkshire country home of Christopher Cone and Stanley J Seeger.
Seeger, a wealthy and reclusive American heir who once owned one of Britain’s grandest homes, Sutton Place, died in 2014. His partner, Cone, has held a number of sales from their huge collections since then with the latest taking place on Tuesday in London.
“He is having a clear out,” said David Macdonald of Sotheby’s, who is in charge of the sale. “But what an amazing clear out. There are quite serious things and fun things.”
It is the sort of auction where a Ben Nicholson collage will go on sale followed by an original Biggles illustration and then a Steinway ‘Victory’ Upright piano, made during the second world war and designed to be parachuted in to the arena of war as a morale booster to American troops.
The slightly squashed wicker picnic basket comes with an estimate of £600-800 which might seem steep until visitors discover it was owned by Marilyn Monroe.
Macdonald said the sale was full of stories and the objects reflected the gift-giving between Seeger and Cone.
An example of that is the lidded copper cooking pot which Seeger gave to Cone one Christmas. It was mass produced during the first world war to be given to Russian soldiers. Astonishingly the maker was the imperial jeweller Fabergé who, for obvious reasons, was going through something of a downturn, so turned to making more utilitarian objects. It has an estimate of £4,000-6,000.
Other items in the sale include the judge’s copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover that he relied on during the 1960 obscenity trial; Lord Byron’s snuff box; a beautifully carved canoe from Kerala, India, which the couple hung from the timber rafters of their home; and Picasso’s hand-painted wooden cigarette box.
Macdonald said what shone through was the “sheer pleasure” in collecting. “I defy anyone not to find one thing that they absolutely love.”
