February 1972 Attending a sale at Christie’s – Katherine B Brett

  ‘Attending a costume sale at Christie’s is an exhilarating experience especially if one is familiar with auction sales in Toronto.  The pace is so much faster that if you are not sitting on the edge of your seat, and paying close attention, a bargain can fly by before you have caught your breath and made a note of the item just before it.   I attended my first sale in the spring of 1968.  The two days before the sale were set aside for public viewing.  The viewing was held in very confined quarters where there were racks of dresses and other garments around the walls of a room too small to hold them.  On the floor, and on old pieces of furniture, there were boxes and bundles of miscellaneous articles.  I had received the catalogue in advance and had made notes of the various pieces which, from the descriptions sounded interesting.  The problem was to find them in the mad crush which closely resembled the Symphony Rummage...