JFK auction fetches high prices

Kennedy favoured rocking chairs because of his bad back

A rocking chair that belonged to John F Kennedy has sold for almost 20 times its estimate in an auction that shows the continuing appeal of his name.

The oak chair, sold for $96,000 (£50,700), was among the contents of five homes belonging to the former president's family.

The three-day sale in New York includes some 600 lots, most of them ordinary household items.

Sotheby's said it had been surprised by the brisk bidding on the first day.

Although one Cambodian bust was estimated to fetch tens of thousands of dollars, some of the lots from Hyannis Port, Martha's Vineyard, New Jersey, New York and Virginia were estimated to fetch less than $100 each.

Nostalgia kick

Yet even the most mundane items sold so far have raised up to 70 times their estimated value, helping raise $1.7m (£898,000) by the end of the first day.

For example, a nondescript cast-iron doorstop with a $70 reserve sold for $4,800, while a sugar bowl estimated at less than $150 fetched $7,200.

The decision to sell the items was taken by JFK's daughter Caroline

The "Kennedy rocker", one of a number used by the president for his bad back, attracted particular interest, as did a monogrammed red wool blanket that sold for $18,000.

"We definitely were surprised," Sotheby's senior vice-president Chapin Carson told the AFP news agency, putting the results down to nostalgia.

"I think Americans, and actually people all over the world, look back on the time when the Kennedys were in the White House as one of great hope and pride," he said.

The decision to part with so many personal possessions was taken by the last surviving member of JFK's immediate family, his daughter Caroline.

She said that following the death of her brother, John Kennedy Jr, in a plane accident in 1999, she was left with more homes and possessions than one person could possibly use or enjoy.

She said she hoped that so many things which had brought her happy memories would now do the same for their new owners.

JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963, after serving almost three years as president.