Pieces of Camelot Sold at Auction

A pair of President John F. Kennedy’s Navy boxer shorts sold for $5,000 at auction Saturday, while an online bidder for a personal notebook used during the 1960 presidential campaign thought her winning bid was for $2,250, not the actual high bid of $22,500.

The auction featuring personal, campaign and other items belonging to the president and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was conducted by Maryland-based Hantman’s Auctioneers & Appraisers.

The items were consigned for sale by Jacqueline Kennedy’s personal secretary between 1957 and 1964, Mary Gallagher, and her personal assistant between 1959 and 1965, Providencia Paredes.

The campaign notebook is black and contains 22 pages of lists, speech ideas and campaign notes. It was used by then-Sen. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential campaign.

Suzanne Vlach, proprietor of Seaview Antique Mall in Seaview, Wash., said Saturday from her home in Vancouver: “We thought it was $2,200, not $22,000.”

Vlach said she immediately e-mailed Hantman’s to inform them of her error, asking if there was any way to correct it. She added that she had intended to put the notebook in her shop, “but it might be a little expensive for my customers.”

The bid pages for each of the 332 lots had a warning advising bidders that “if you are the winning bidder, you will enter into a legally binding contract to purchase the item from the seller.”

“I may have to keep it,” Vlach said.

Reached at the auction site, Allan Stypeck, a partner in the Kennedy auction with Hantman’s, said they could not comment on Vlach’s situation until they “determine what the situation is.”

The item garnering the highest price was a leather attache case, an engagement present from Jacqueline Kennedy to her future husband, that fetched $32,500. The case was a special item not owned by Jacqueline Kennedy’s assistants. It was consigned for the sale by the Museum of American Financial History.

Bidding for one autographed special edition of Kennedy’s inaugural address closed at $10,000. Another went for $9,000.

The $5,000 boxer shorts were World War II Navy-issue, with the sewn label “Jack Kennedy.”

Two pairs of his pajama bottoms sold for $2,000.

Several of Jacqueline Kennedy’s nightgowns brought between $450 and $850, and a black, one-piece swimsuit sold for $750. A tuxedo of President Kennedy’s went for $2,750.