(Bloomberg News) Philanthropist Brooke Astor's lacquered Japanese cabinets, Louis XV clocks and porcelain tea sets are heading to the auction block at Sotheby's on Sept. 24 and 25.
The sale "Property From the Estate of Brooke Astor" includes more than 900 items from her Park Avenue duplex and her Westchester mansion, Holly Hill.
Expected to tally as much as $9.7 million, the proceeds will benefit Astor's favorite charities, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Animal Medical Center and New York schools. Astor died in 2007 at the age of 105.
Estimates range from a small leather jewelry case, valued between $80 and $120, to a Tiepolo drawing for $300,000 to $400,000.
"There are so many small objects that are hopefully affordable for people," said Philip Marshall, Astor's grandson, in a telephone interview. "They were just as important to her as her expensive paintings."
Among the highlights are animal figurines and dog paintings, many of which hung salon-style along the spiral stairwell in Holly Hill.
"There were dog statues and paintings all over the place," said Marshall. A 19th-century painting of a King Charles spaniel, holding a red slipper in its teeth, is valued between $2,000 and $4,000.
Many Teapots
The sale also includes lots of teapots. A group of four 18th-century Chinese pots is expected to bring $2,000 to $3,000. A mahogany tea table in the style of George III is valued between $300 and $400.
"She just loved having tea with people in the afternoon," Marshall said.