O JACKIE, LOOK AT WHAT'S BEING AUCTIONED.

Byline: Fred Kaplan Boston Globe

From diamonds to rocking chairs, sports cars to table mats, the earthly possessions of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis are going up on the auction block, and who needs better proof that an era has come to an end?

When Camelot meets Sotheby's, in one fell swoop, the tangible remnants of a mythic age are metamorphosed into a high-priced figment of commodity fetishism.

Everyone wants a piece of Jackie O., who died two years ago at the age of 64. The catalog of her goods, which went on sale at Sotheby's auction house Tuesday for $90 in hardcover ($45 in soft), has itself already sold 27,000 copies. The actual auction, a transaction of 1,195 items from her walls, closets, garages, jewelry boxes and storage bins, will take place April 23-26 in New York and is expected to reap well over $5 million.

Forget about the Lesotho III diamond, the 40.42 carat stone - the third-largest cut from the famous South African diamond and once displayed at the Smithsonian - which Aristotle Onassis gave her as an engagement present. The Sotheby's curators estimate that ought to fetch $600,000.

And forget about the 167-carat diamond and emerald necklace from Van Cleef & Arpels (another engagement gift), the cabochon-colored stone-and-diamond pendant necklace (the wedding gift), the black-glazed terfoil oinochoe pot from the fourth century B.C., or the Robert Rauschenberg gouache-and-pencil "Drawing for the President of the USA With Dante." Unless you've got $100,000 or so to play around, these things are out of your league.

Instead, and perhaps no less preciously, focus on the former first lady's tape measure - American, silver-cased, 25 feet, 9 inches long, from Tiffany's, circa 1965, inscribed with her initials ("JBK"). The curators think this might go for a mere $500 or $700. Imagine, as you measure the width of your living room, that Jackie O. used this very strip of metal to measure ... maybe her living room.

Or how about "A Collection of Miscellaneous Woven Baskets (approx. 14 pieces)," which probably will fetch $150 to $200. Pier 1 Imports sells pretty much the same thing for only a tiny bit less, but here, you can imagine, Jackie O. packed picnics or picked strawberries with these very baskets.

Some of the catalog's estimates are either naive or deliberately underpriced, a bait-and-switch to bring the overly eager into the bidding room. John F. Kennedy's golf clubs - a complete set of McGregor woods and a black leather bag embossed with "JFK Washington DC" - for just $700 to $900? (The woods alone are worth half that today.) Or his Swiss Golf-Sport stroke counter for just $50 to $100? ("JFK counted a double-bogey as a bogey on the same counter that I'm using to count a double-bogey as a bogey!")

The auction also will offer up the 1992 BMW 325i four-door sedan on which Mrs. Onassis put 10,032 miles in her last couple of years. The curators estimate the item will fetch $18,000 to $22,000. However, an inquiry with a local BMW dealer indicates that such a car would sell in that range even if Jackie hadn't driven it.

The catalog reveals that the most glamorous president's wife of all time was a collecting maven. In addition to some fine rare paintings, there are countless numbers of 18th- and 19th-century dreck and kitsch - a seemingly limitless appetite for paintings of ducks, spotted-billed pelicans and dreary French landscapes. There are 201 pieces of jewelry, many priceless but a fair number of fakeries as well. (You can bid, for example, on the fake pearls that John-John is pulling on in a famous photo. Estimate: $500 to $700.)

Libraries and other curators also should have a field day. Here we have JFK's personal copy of his 1961 Inaugural Address, complete with scratch marks and marginalia in which he made last-minute alterations. (Estimate: $10,000 to $15,000.) Or there's the desk - a Louis XVI ormolu-mounted mahogany Levasseur bureau - at which JFK signed the 1963 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. (Estimate: $20,000 to $30,000.)

There are even a few two-fer collectors' items. For example, there's a walnut cigar humidor with a plaque reading "To JFK Good Health-Good Smoking. Milton Berle." Or a copy of David Ben-Gurion's "Israel: Years of Challenge" inscribed, "To Mrs. Jacqueline B. Kennedy, with deep admiration, D. Ben-Gurion, Sdeh-Boker, 18.12.63." (Estimate: $1,500, but who's kidding whom?) Or, for sheer egotism, Norman Mailer's "Harlot's Ghost," signed "Jackie, I don't know if you will care to read this or not, but I want you to have it. With respect, Norman. Sept '91."

The Kennedy children, John Jr. and Caroline, negotiated the sell-off and, as heirs of her estate, will reap its earnings. In a foreword to the catalog, they note that the most historically valuable objects and documents were donated to the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. As for the rest, they say that for their mother, "history came alive through objects and paintings as well as books. Because the things she collected link her with history, and because she cared about them, they represent more than just a record of her life and travels. As they go out into the world, we hope that they bring with them not only their own beauty and spirit, but some of hers as well."

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Photo (1) Curiosity-seekers browse through catalogs for the upcoming New York auction of items belonging to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The catalogs alone cost $90 hardcover, $45 softcover. (2) No doubt, those bidding at the April 23-26 auction will be hoping to purchase a bit of the fairy-tale history that the former Jacqueline Bouvier created with first husband John F. Kennedy.