Doheny Collection brings about $7.1 million

Perryville's Estelle Doheny Collection, auctioned by Christie's in New York last week and this week, raised nearly $7.1 million for charity when added to the private sale of a portion of the collection.

Antique glass paperweights and other pieces of decorative art from the former St. Mary's of the Barrens seminary fetched $755,208 at auction Monday.

Paperweights and glass art objects created by Clichy and Baccarat artisans were the highlights of that auction.

However, the lion's share of the Doheny collection was auctioned Friday, with rare Bibles, devotional texts and other manuscripts raising $5,541,075.

A complete Gospel of John from the first-edition Gutenberg Bible, valued at about $1 million, did not sell Friday, but sold privately later for less than $800,000.

Proceeds will benefit charitable efforts of the collection's owner, Midwest Province of the Congregation of the Mission, which hoped to raise $5 million from the sale.

The entire collection, housed for years at a Catholic library in Perryville, was donated by Doheny, a philanthropist who died in 1958.

She requested her gift be used to support the Vincentian ministry.

Friday's auction set several world auction records, including $424,000 for the King James Bible and $44,650 for the first American edition of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn."