Fans of author Joan Didion are paying thousands for their sunglasses, photos and desk at an auction of her supplies
It’s fair to say that the appetite for Joan Didion paraphernalia is at an all-time high. The pair of sunglasses, which the writer modeled in a 2015 Celine ad campaign, sold for $27,000 on November 16 in a live online and phone auction hosted by Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York.
Didion wore the tortoiseshell sunglasses while sitting in a chair in her apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, wearing a black shirt and a large gold pendant. The shades were originally listed with a price estimate of just $400 to $800.
They were far from the only thing to far beat their price estimate at the Didion Estate Sale, which was heavily advertised nationally for a month; Public previews took place a week before the sale.
Two black and white photographs of Didion with her Stingray Corvette sold for $24,000 and $26,000 respectively, excluding a 28% buyer’s premium. That’s more than you would pay for a real Chevrolet Corvette today.
Recorded by Julian Wasser shortly after Didion’s release Slouching towards Bethlehem In 1968, the famous series was filmed in her rented apartment on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, California, where she lived with writer John Dunne and their daughter Quintana Roo. The photos were originally listed with an estimated price of $1,500 to $3,000 each.
A solid walnut, oak, and maple desk that Didion’s parents had owned sold for $60,000, about six times its original estimate of $8,000 to $12,000. A stack of most of Didion’s published books, including river run and a first edition of The White Album, sold for $15,000, 15 times the original estimate. Her small Cartier table clock sold for $35,000 after a low estimate of $100. It doesn’t even keep time.
A Victorian rattan armchair with blue and white cushions that Didion had at their homes in California and New York had been estimated at $700; it sold for $28,000. Even a pile of nondescript seashells that had adorned Didion’s house won an ungodly sum. Listed at a low estimate of $100, they were sold for $7,000.
At press time, Stair was on lot 168 of 244, so if you consider yourself a fan, there’s still a chance of snagging Didion’s leather waste basket and silver salt barrels.
Such prices are high, but not unexpected for a celebrity sale at the height of fame, when even mundane items conjure up the spirit of the deceased for those with the money to buy them. (Didion died on December 23, 2021.)
In 1988, Andy Warhol’s cookie jars sold for $247,830. In 1996, a Jackie Kennedy memorabilia auction fetched more than $34 million for her jewelry, photographs, and personal effects such as her green 1992 BMW 325i four-door sedan. The car fetched only $70,000, but her vintage rocking chair did made of oak sold for $453,500 after listing with a pre-sale estimate of only $3,000-$5,000.
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