A paddle from the June 2024 Doyle auction from The Collection of Stephen Sondheim.
Excerpt from the book Matching Minds with Sondheim:
At 10:00 a.m., Peter Costanzo, a senior vice president at Doyle, stepped up to the podium. “Shall we get started?” he said to the crowd and smiled as the applause rose in the room. Turning to his staff, he asked, “Are we all set on the phones? Are we all set in the room?” Then, with three taps of his gavel, the auction began.
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, to those of us in the room and those watching through the online stream. “Welcome to the collection of Stephen Sondheim.” The room burst into cheers. Costanzo explained the bidding process—“Raise your paddle. Don’t wink at me”—and advised us to “bid lively, bid frequently, and bid often.” He estimated that the sale would run from six to eight hours (in the end, it would total ten and a half).
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