For three days in the April of 1996, the belongings of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis where put on display for interested bidders to see. A total of 1195 lots in all were put up for auction including her jewelry, art collection, furniture, private letters and memoirs, clothing and even her green BMW. If you weren’t lucky enough to snag a piece of Jackie O, the nearly 600 page Sotheby’s catalogue was a nice enough gift. Filled with images and commentary about Jackie’s life and her belongings, the catalogue is something to be treasured. I found one in a used bookshop on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and was initially drawn to its connection to someone’s things. It isn’t her life at all but in some ways it’s all most people ever knew about Jackie. Her dress, her pearls, her art and the china they ate off of when they came for a dinner at her house.
