AS auctions go, this one will be fabulous, darling. Dame Joan Collins is having a bit of a de-clutter: hundreds of objects from her homes and capacious wardrobes are to be sold, including gowns lavishly endowed with ruffles and shoulder pads, two love letters from Warren Beatty, fur coats, the headboard from the bed in her New York apartment, and perhaps more surprisingly her own watercolour of Saint-Tropez, her son Alexander Newley’s sketch of a ballet dancer, and a Picasso print of a voluptuous naked bottom.

The letters, one addressed “Dear Bird”, were written during her affair with Beatty in the early 60s, when both were relatively unknown, living in Paul Newman’s New York apartment and briefly engaged — she recalled recently that when he proposed he concealed the ring in a carton of chopped liver.

Beatty has more to say about himself, a recent photo shoot and a party where he ate “what looked like a three-pound steak”, than his devotion to Collins, in the letters, which come with a playbill for his appearance in A Loss of Roses, and a photograph of the pair being introduced to Princess Margaret, estimated at up to $3,000.

Beatty, later linked with a string of women including Madonna, Britt Ekland, Goldie Hawn and Elle MacPherson, has been confirmed by songwriter Carly Simon as one of three men portrayed in her hit ‘You’re So Vain’. Collins went on to marry five times.

Although Collins made her stage debut aged nine, and has a film career stretching back well over half a century, she is still probably most famous for her roles in the 70s adaptations of two novels by her equally famous sister Jackie Collins, The Stud, and The Bitch, and for her magnificently monstrous creation of the character of Alexis Carrington in the 80s television series Dynasty.

The auction, at Julien’s auction house in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, includes her outfit from one of Dynasty’s many doomed wedding scenes.

The dresses include startling designs with equally startling pedigrees: an extravagantly ruffled creation in cobalt blue was her costume for a 2012 commercial for Snickers chocolate, which reunited her with her Dynasty rival Stephanie Beacham, who played Sable Colby. In an interview at the time of the commercial, Beacham said: “Joan always managed to be a bigger diva than me. You might find me slouching around in Ugg boots. You wouldn’t find Joan doing that.”

For proof of her diva status, look no further than the black lace and scarlet satin bustier she wore with suspenders and silk stockings in the film These Old Broads in 2001 — with a cast including Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds and Shirley MacLaine — when she was almost 70. It is estimated at up to $700. Or the jewelled 18-carat gold fish skeleton pendant, estimated at up $3,000, with the note: “I love this little fish and I always used to wear it in the south of France with my bathing suit or a kaftan.”

Although there are designer labels including Lanvin, Armani and Alexander McQueen, many of the gowns, including the cream outfit she wore to collect her dame commander of the British empire honour from the Buckingham Palace last March, have “Jackie Palmer” labels, indicating that she designed them herself. At the investiture, she recalled, Prince Charles — whose mother presented her OBE in 1997 — told her “about time too”.

Some of the clothes come with photographs showing their previous outings: a birthday party for the actor Christopher Biggins with the late Cilla Black; a charity event with the Duchess of York; Clint Eastwood’s arm around her bare shoulder at a party in 1997; or clasping hands at a reception with a star-struck looking Samantha Cameron. The photograph of one of the necklaces shows her wearing the rhinestone bow with a marabou stole and nothing else.

She wore two suits — one beige, one pinstriped blue — when the publisher Random House sued her for return of a claimed $3m advance because they said the books weren’t good enough. Collins recalled: “I was wearing a simple beige suit while I was fighting Random House. A friend suggested that I wore a navy blue power suit to court. That is when I won the case!”

Anyone who invests heavily at the auction may be glad to know that the lots include two large vintage Louis Vuitton travelling trunks, estimated at up to $6,000 each.

By arrangement with the Guardian

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2015