Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was, without question, one of the great icons of the twentieth century. Wed to both an American president and a Greek shipping magnate, she was also a mother, a book editor, and a patron of the arts who spearheaded the fight to save New York City’s Grand Central Station. A notoriously private person, she inspired a veritable industry of gossip partly, I suspect, because she handled whatever life threw at her with such incredible grace. Whether or not it was deliberate on her part, the more she concealed, the more of a hold she seemed to have over the public imagination. So in April of 1996, when Sotheby’s held a three-day auction of her estate, the response was phenomenal. It was estimated that 40,000 people came to the presale viewings and between 74,000 and 100,000 copies of the auction catalog were sold. (The proceeds from the catalog went to charity.) Everyone wanted a bit of Jackie, and this was their chance to actually buy it. I recently found one of these catalogs in my local second-hand bookstore. Being an admitted “gem freak,” I went straight for the jewelry section, which takes up 329 of the catalog’s 584 pages. Actually, there are two jewelry sections, one for her fine jewels and one for what Sotheby’s terms her “fashion jewelry.” What is undeniable about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is that she had an impeccable sense of style that seemed both effortless and elegant. Every outfit looked exactly right and each one was accented by the perfect piece of jewelry. She never wore too much or too little, and nearly everything she wore seemed to become an instant classic. Catalogs for estate sales are a voyeur’s delight, a way of defining someone’s character by their possessions. Of course, this is an unreliable way to try to understand anyone, and yet the clues that fill the Sotheby’s catalog are tantalizing: photographs of Jackie wearing these pieces, often with someone famous in the shot; captions noting the designer or the person who gave her the piece. But mostly, the notes on the jewelry just describe the piece and let the reader fill in the history behind it. And you can’t help wondering: Did she choose this piece herself or was it given to her? Did she actually love that necklace or did she wear it because the ambassador of some country gave it to her and she was having dinner with him that night? It’s not only her own taste reflected in these pieces but a lifetime of international travel and celebrity.

On another level, the catalog is a fascinating reflection of the way we give things value. Auction houses traditionally low-ball their estimated prices to encourage bidding, and Sotheby’s was no exception. Most of Mrs. Onassis’ jewelry was assigned rather modest prices. (Keep in mind that the price of gold was far lower in 1996, just over $400 an ounce.) Still, pieces with an estimated worth of a few thousand dollars routinely sold for ten or even twenty times that amount. One item not even pictured in the catalog was a strand of 33 amber worry beads, its gold link engraved “Jackie.” Estimated at $200-$300, it sold for $21,850. Another seemingly affordable item was a pair of “reverse-tinted crystal intaglio fox cufflinks.” These round cufflinks, each featuring the image of a little fox, were estimated at $300-$400. They sold for $17,250, probably because it was easy to imagine Jackie using them to fasten her cuffs before setting off on a hunt. The introduction to the catalog, penned by Caroline and John Kennedy, describes the pieces in the auction as things that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis “cared about,” which is the key to what made these pieces so valuable. They represented a chance to own a piece of history. Or perhaps the auction was simply an extension of the ancient belief that jewelry somehow retains the spirit of its owner: Wear a piece of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ jewelry, and you have a chance to share in some of her glamour, beauty, and endless mystique.

In our next part you’ll find a small sampling of the jewels that were sold at the auction. All prices—both estimated and the actual sale price—come from the Sotheby’s catalog,

The Estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: April 23-26, 1996. All prices are in U.S. dollars.