Evening star., 1936-11-22
ELK|NS TREASURES
TO Be AUCT|ONED
Sir Joshua Reynolds Work
Among Furnishings Soon
to Be Sold.

A portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
an elaborate desk made to the order
of King Louis XVI of France.
Sevres vase baked in 1914 to cele-
brate a Napoleonic victory. a gold
dinner service. Dresden vases, Boulle
cabinets and other costly ornaments
and furnishings from the K street
home of the late Mrs. Halle Davis
Elkins-daughter, wife and mother of
West Virginia Senators-wil soon be
sold to the highest bidders.
The Elkins house shortly after the
turn of the century was the scene
of many of the most elaborate social
functions of the day. American in
dustrial leaders, foreign nobility, am
baSsadors and other great and famous
personages ate from the Royal Worces-
ter plates while they sat in the
green upholstered Directoire chairs
about the 20-foot Georgian table
which are to be offered at auction
Estate Put at SI,500.000.
Mrs. Elkins died in March. 1898,
leaving an estate appraised in that
depression year at more than 1,50O,-
600. Her bequests we're fought in
District Court by her grandson,
Stephen B. Elkins, on the ground that
she had been of unsound mind at the
time she drew her will, but Elkins
was overruled. The auction, to be
conducted the week of December IA
at the Washington Galleries, 724
Thirteenth street, was ordered by
George F. Snyder, executor.
Mrs. Elkins was the mother of Mrs.
Katherine Elkins Hit, whose frus-
trated romance with an Italian duke
was one of the best known love affairs
OF the past Gentry. Mrs. Hit died
recently, leaving an extensive estate.
The most interesting items in the
art and furniture collection are said
to be the paintings the Joshua
Reynolds, a Bouguereau, a Harlow. a
Lawrence, a Tocque, an Opie and a
Peter Lely.
Nine of the paintings in the sale
hung in the immense bed room of Mrs.
Elkins' apartment at 2029 Connecticut
avenue, where she lived her last five
years. One of her chief treasures was
the Bouguereau oil of Mother and
Child" bought for $500 in 1906 by
her son, Blaine Elkins, from the art
lists agent, M. Knoedler & Co.. in
new York City. Pasted on the reverse
of this canvas is this memorandum:
Left by Blaine on the wall of his
mothers room for the duration of his
mothers lifetime"
Mother Outliyed Son.
But the mother outlived the son,
who had expected to reclaim it upon
Mrs. Elkins' death
The Reynolds portrait is of Mrs.
Mary Butler, an unidentified beauty of
the eighteenth century Mrs. Elkins
bought it in 1908 for $500 from v.
G. Fischer Art Co.. then in business at
529 Fifteenth street, and with the
work she received this bill of sale:
Sold in the collection of Lord FL
phinstone, painted about 1885. Guar
anteed to be the original picture"
The portrait of the Tipped
Portuguese Catherine of Bragaflza,
wife Of King Charles II. the English
restoration monarch, Is up for sale for
only the second time in its 25o-year-
old history. The first owners were the
Livingstone family in England, who
sold it in 1905 through James Silo. the
New York auctioneer. p. Livingstone,
who arranged the sale, wrote Silo
THE painting by Sir Peter Iely
which I sent you with the other ar
ticles for sale in New York (for the
reason that we do not care to have it
known in England that they are being
disposed of Is we'll known one and
has always been in our family Its
authenticity cannot be questioned"