Fetching items
Former first lady Betty Ford and the Guernsey’s auction house teamed up Saturday to auction off more than 1,000 personal items of late President Gerald Ford and the Fords’ Colorado home.
“It was a wonderful event,” Guernsey’s President Arlan Ettinger told Yeas & Nays. “There was a great affection for the Fords during the auction.”
Some of the highlights from the auction:
President Ford’s skis sold for $17,000, and an autographed poster of a college-aged Ford (wearing his football uniform) raked in $1,500. There were about half a dozen cowboy hats for sale that went for roughly $1,000 apiece. Ford’s golf clubs were “quite popular,” although Ettinger was not clear on what they actually fetched.
The “fun item” of the day in the Ford treasure trove was a 300-pound X-ray machine the Secret Service installed in the Fords’ Colorado home to scan received packages. “The gentleman that bought it joked with us afterward that he wanted someone to steal the thing,” Ettinger said. “Who would want it?” The X-ray ultimately sold for $100 and, despite the machine’s large size, “we got it into the back of the buyer’s SUV.”
Oddly enough, the X-ray buyer also purchased Ford’s Colorado home a couple of years ago.
“He wanted to put some of the items back into the home,” Ettinger said.
The auction benefited three charities, including the Betty Ford Clinic and Paul Newman’s OK Corral Camp.
