Classy Props

Thinking of picking up the Baroque gilt piano seen in Mae West’s “She Done Him Wrong” as a stocking stuffer? The choice piece of Hollywood memorabilia will be available during Christie’s Dec. 16 auction in N.Y.C., along with some 175 other fine film furnishings from dozens of films, mostly Paramount titles.

The piano, also used in “Death Takes a Holiday,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “The Magnificent Fraud,” “My Friend Willie” and an episode of the original “Star Trek” TV series, comes with a $60,000-$80,000 auction estimate.

Also on the block: a set of rococo side chairs, one of which had a supporting role for Carroll Baker’s bottom in “Harlow” ($8,000-12,000 estimated for the set); a pair of torcheres (torch-like pedestals, $8,000-12,000 for the pair) and an Italian Renaissance-style cabinet ($25,000-35,000) from “Citizen Kane” (the cabinet also turned up in “The Spiral Staircase” and “Slightly Scarlet”), and a Flemish Baroque cabinet from “Funny Face” ($20,000-$30,000).

Marc Wanamaker, archivist and Christie’s consultant, said it’s rare that a movie studio has so many important antiques in its collection. Making them available to the public after so many decades “makes this auction doubly unique,” he said.