The last item was a festive water color sketch of Mr. Buatta in bed, in a typical swirl of fabric, newspapers, magazines and books, along with two rotary phones, made by Konstantin Kakanias for The New York Times in 1988. Within minutes, the cost of the illustration, which had an estimate of $2,000 to $3,000, rose to $11,250. While the highest purchase was $212,500 for a spare and lovely Russian painting of two houses (an atypical object for the very maximalist Mr. Buatta), perhaps the most startling to observers was the sale of 107 pieces of porcelain lettuce ware. (A chipped tureen shaped like a bunch of asparagus that went for $17,500 raised some eyebrows, too.) “You would think everybody who wanted a Dodie Thayer head of lettuce would have one by now,” said Stephen Drucker, a former editor of House Beautiful and Town & Country.

Source: New York Times January 27, 2020 21:22 UTC