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The life & times of Edith Rockefeller McCormick are Chicago history. Most colorful of the Rockefeller children, her wedding to Harvester Scion Harold McCormick in 1895 was only surpassed in national interest by the marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt to the Duke of Marlborough the same year. In Chicago she succeeded Mrs. Potter Palmer as social arbiter, gave vast and lavish parties, backed the Chicago opera for years before Insull. She used to buy dresses six at a time, all the same model. She thought nothing of spending $25,000 for roses to bower her ballroom. Suffering from a nervous disorder in 1912, she met Psychiatrist Carl Jung in Manhattan, followed him with her family to Zurich where she lived as his pupil and assistant for eight years. Returning to Chicago in 1921, she picked up a pudgy little Swiss architect, Edwin D. Krenn, brought him home as her social escort. Efforts to make a commercial success of the Krenn real estate firm in Chicago cost her most of her fortune. She died in a small apartment in the Drake Hotel in 1932 (TIME, Sept, 5, 1932) leaving five-twelfths of her estate to Escort Krenn.
On hand to participate in the auction of her relics last week were Mrs. Edward H. Manville, Mrs. Walter P. Chrysler, Mrs. John North Willys, Actor David Warfield, many another great name. Present, too, was Muriel McCormick Hubbard to buy as many of her late mother's belongings as she could afford. She spent $60,000 and got, among other things:
¶ Two 16th Century Gothic hunting tapestries, each $6,100
¶ Diamond & sapphire bracelet . . . 4,700
¶ Diamond & pearl pendant . . . 4,100
¶ Cromwellian silver candle or
posset cup . . . 2,600
¶ Pair pearl & diamond earings . . .2,400
¶ Chinchilla wrap with silver fox collar. . 2,400
¶ Pearl ring . . . 2,300
¶ Tournai (or Oudenaarde) Gothic
millefleurs tapestry . . . 2,100
¶ George III silver wine coolers . . . 2,000
¶ Aubusson silk tapestry screen . . . .1,900
¶ Directoire carved acajou and silk
petit-point canapé 1,025
¶ Twelve George III silver plates $1,020
¶ 18 pierced & chased gilded silver
dessert plates 900
¶ Linen damask & Burano Point
de Venise lace banqueting cloth 900
¶ Three dozen drawn-thread linen dinner napkins 675
¶ Mahogany boudoir grand piano 525
¶ Crown Derby gold-decorated & hand-painted porcelain dessert service.... 455
¶ Pair embroidered linen bed sheets 85
¶ Pair embroidered linen bed sheets 57