Bidders Show More Vigor at JFK Sale, Day 2

An oak rocking chair from John F. Kennedy’s suite at New York’s Carlyle Hotel sold Thursday for $332,500 as an auction wound up with more enthusiastic bidding than the dismal first day.

Total sales figures from the auction at Guernsey’s auction house weren’t expected to be available until today.

The rocking chair, which had been estimated to sell for $20,000 to $30,000 before the sale, was one of two used by Kennedy in a Carlyle apartment he used for meetings and visits to New York while a senator and president.

A 58-minute film of John F. Kennedy greeting voters during his 1952 Senate campaign sold for $34,500.

The 16mm black-and-white footage of Kennedy, parts with no sound and parts with Kennedy narration, was intended for television commercials. It shows him greeting factory workers and others in Massachusetts and was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder.

A mahogany cigar box with a silver plaque engraved with the president’s name, stocked with a dozen original 7-inch cigars, went for $40,250.

Kennedy’s black wood walking cane with a gold-plated handle went for $14,950, well above a pre-sale estimate of $4,000 to $5,000.

Two pairs of Kennedy’s gray long johns sold for $3,450, after being estimated at $2,000 to $3,000. The underwear was bought by Richard Wilson of Chevy Chase, Md., a who runs a mail order business selling unusual celebrity memorabilia. He said he plans to display the president’s underwear side-by-side with a slip worn by Marilyn Monroe.