A view of the music room inside Elizabeth Colyear Vincent’s Newport Beach home.
A Newport Beach woman’s estate brought in $2.3 million at Bonhams & Butterfields on Sunday, Nov. 8.
Elizabeth Colyear Vincent’s collection of 18th and 19th century furniture, porcelain figures, artworks and urns attracted about 240 people to the L.A. auction house. Calls and absentee bids also came in from Australia, Turkey, England, France, Germany, Italy and Greece.
The event was one of Bonhams & Butterfields most successful furniture and decorative art auctions to date.
Many of the items far surpassed their initial pre-sale estimates, according to Andrew Jones, L.A. director of European furniture and decorative arts for Bonhams & Butterfields.
“It was a flying success,” Jones said. “It went past everybody’s expectations. During the past few years, its been really tough with the economic climate. But this was fresh, quality merchandise available to the public.”
The top sales, or lots, were a Louis XVI-style gilt bronze mounted kingwood vitrine (late 19th century) and a pair of Louis XVI-style gilt bronze floor lamps, or torcheres (also late 19th 
century). Both sold for $91,500.
Colyear Vincent was a longtime Newport Beach resident who died Feb. 1 at the age of 94. She was an ardent supporter of the Orange County Perfrorming Arts Center and Hoag Hospital.
Related and previous posts on Visual Art by Richard Chang:
Estate of Newport philanthropist up for auction
