Kathleen Doyle, chairman and chief executive officer of Doyle New York, left, chats with Wendy Moonan, antiques columnist for The New York Times.
:The top "lot" at Doyle New York's 45th anniversary celebration on May 17, 2007, was the observation deck 70 floors above Rockefeller Center.
It was certainly an affair to remember. Approximately invited 300 guests — a mix that Doyle spokesman Louis Webre said was about two-thirds bankers and lawyers and one-third dealers, media and clients of the venerable auction house launched by William Doyle in 1962 — were warmly greeted by Kathleen Doyle, the firm's chairman and chief executive officer, at the summit of Top of the Rock. There, nonstop Bellinis and hors d'oeuvres supplied by Cipriani and live cocktail music accompanied unparalleled 360-degree views of New York City.
The event, said Doyle, was designed to evoke the spirit of earlier such gatherings Doyle used to conduct at Windows on the World, the restaurant and adjoining bar that until September 11, 2001, operated on the top floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. "We wanted to echo that," she said.
Decorator Mario Buatta enjoys the evening's social hour with Muffie Cunningham, a vice president at Doyle New York.
Doyle New York is one of the world's foremost auctioneers and appraisers of fine art, jewelry, furniture, decorations and a variety of other categories, conducting about 40 sales each year.
In the past, the auction house garnered international media attention with such landmark celebrity estate sales as James Cagney, Gloria Swanson, Bette Davis and Rock Hudson, as well as musicians Louis Armstrong and Count Basie. In addition to the realms of Hollywood and entertainment, however, Doyle's focus has always been on notable collections and estates, according to Doyle. "It was never our intent to be just a clearinghouse for dealers," she said. "We have always been estate and collection oriented."
In March 2006, for example, the firm auctioned coins, medals and bank notes from the estate of Samuel Mills Damon of Honolulu, Hawaii. In a safe deposit vault for many decades, the Damon collection featured numerous US, Hawaiian and world rarities and previously unrecorded items. The highly anticipated sale reached more than $3.8 million.
Chinese porcelain collectors will recall the September 2003 auction of the F. Gordon Morrill collection of Chinese and Chinese Export porcelain. Comprising more than 30 lots of Yuan and early Ming blue and white porcelain, a group of fine Qing porcelain, and a large selection of very early Chinese Export porcelain, the sale totaled more than $12 million.
It was a "summit meeting” for friends of Doyle New York at Top of the Rock. The rooftop space, 70 floors above Rockefeller Center, provides awesome 360-degree views of Manhattan for assembled guests.
More recently, on May 16, Doyle conducted an auction of important English and Continental furniture and decorations showcasing property from the estate of Ronald Grimaldi, noted designer and president of Rose Cumming.
Doyle's Webre said the firm is looking forward to Asia Week later this summer in New York City, when it will conduct a sale that includes Chinese contemporary art, a collecting category that is hot at the moment, and it is bringing on a new regional representative in Beijing.
Expansion is also occurring in the Washington, D.C., area, "a very active region," according to Webre, where the firm is doubling the office space of its representative there. "The Spitler decorated chest was consigned from that office," he said, referring to the May 1 auction of American furniture in which a Johannes Spitler decorated chest sold for $288,000.
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