Articles
"Can't Get a Plaza Suite?
Get the Furniture", New York Times, © James Barron, 2/12/06
On the subject of the Plaza Hotel, let us bend a line from Simon and
Garfunkel: So long, Frank Lloyd Wright Suite.
Wright, who lived at the Plaza in the 1950's while overseeing the
construction of the Guggenheim Museum, could not have been a more satisfied
guest. ''I like it,'' he once said of the Plaza, ''almost as much as if I'd
built it myself.''
The Plaza reciprocated by renaming Suite 223-225 for him and putting a
41-inch-square photograph of Wright on the wall. When the Plaza closed last year
for conversion to condominiums and a much smaller hotel, the photograph was
stored in a warehouse, along with everything from doorknobs to beds to murals to
a grand piano.
But in a city where auctions have been built around everything from John F.
Kennedy's rocking chair to Marilyn Monroe's baby-grand piano, perhaps it was
only a matter of time before the items from the Plaza were taken out of the
warehouse and put on the block. Christie's will sell them on March 15 in its
Rockefeller Center gallery. (A liquidation sale of less memorable bric-a-brac
was held at the hotel last May.)
Christie's estimates that the photograph of Wright will sell for $600 to
$800. A non-Wright piece from the Wright suite could go for more: Christie's
says the chandelier will bring $2,500 to $3,000, and the draperies $500 to $700.
''Some of the pieces are interesting and have a fun story, but it's a
bigger-picture auction,'' said Catherine Elkies, the Christie's specialist in
charge. ''It's a way of paying tribute to one of New York's landmarks.''
And the 99-year-old Plaza was a social landmark long before it was designated
a New York City landmark -- and long before, as Ms. Elkies put it, ''the Trumps
trumpified it'' when they owned it in the 1980's and 1990's.
''People really had an emotional connection to the Plaza, whether it was
Truman Capote throwing his big black and white dance, which became a seminal
event, or Marilyn giving a press call and her dress strap breaking and everybody
going crazy, or the Beatles,'' Ms. Elkies said.
The auction will feature a bellman's uniform with a hat (estimated price,
$200 to $300) and what are billed as Eloise's slippers ($400 to $600). There is
a stained-glass panel from the early 20th century with the words ''ice cream''
($2,000 to $3,000), and there is a newer plate-glass door with the Plaza crest
and the words ''stairway to lobby.'' Christie's expects to sell it for $1,200 to
$1,800.
The Plaza had lots of chandeliers, which means that Christie's has lots of
chandeliers to sell. One from the Blue Room is expected to go for $5,000 to
$8,000, and one from Le Petit Trianon for $6,000 to $9,000.
Then there are the smaller light fixtures that were in the corridors, like
the one next to George Harrison's head in a photograph of the Beatles that is
reproduced in the auction catalog. Christie's plans to sell three sets of four
such fixtures, at $1,800 to $2,000 a set.
''Have you bought lighting lately?'' Ms. Elkies asked. ''I think that's super
reasonable if you get a set like that, and someone who's buying that, I'm 200
percent sure that they'll tell the story of where they got them.''
The same probably goes for the doorknobs. Christie's will sell 48 of them, in
lots of 6, for prices estimated at $600 to $800 per lot.
Some of the priciest items came from the Oak Room, like a silver-plated
serving cart with a hinged roll-top ($7,000 to $10,000) and a humidor ($8,000 to
$12,000). Christie's expects the Steinway grand piano to go for $8,000 to
$10,000. Six leather club chairs will be sold in pairs for $1,500 to $2,000
apiece. Even the cookware will be sold. Lot No. 73, with an estimated sale price
of $200 to $300, includes a large stock pot, a mixing bowl and 20 saucepans.
Ms. Elkies said the price estimates were conservative and based on the value
of an object itself, not on its past at the Plaza.
''That's the unknown factor, how much somebody will love it that something
comes out of the Plaza,'' she said.
Photos: Ever fantasize about a maid's outfit? All right, a Plaza Hotel
bellman's uniform isn't quite the same, but it will be on the auction block on
March 15 at Christie's, as will a Steinway grand piano from the Oak Room. (Photo
by Christie's)
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