The sale was helped considerably by the inclusion of a fine selection of old master portraits long known in the trade as Instant ancestors.
This reflected a burgeoning of a new aspirational market. There are thought to be many new buyers with new money and no past to speak of.
The result would have been a most pleasant birthday surprise for Aitken had he not died last year, a proud but ailing man in his late seventies, in a fall in his eastern suburbs Sydney flat.
The date of the sale was pleasingly coincidental. It was not noticed at the time of the sale listing.
Nor was the coincidental use of lattice catalogue cover background realised at first This was based on one of Aitken's early signature fabrics.
The character of the dispersal on the other hand, was very different from what gentlemen of their vintage might have expected when yearning for the distinction of a London sale.
The auction had barely a dozen people in the room at any one time during the five hours the 247 lots took three different auctioneers to sell.
The electronic bidding indicator on the other hand showed buyers in remote and exotic locations.
The two decorator collector partners' long trawl for elegant objects of consummate decorative appeal embraced divergent media and subject matter.
This was almost a admirably designed for dispersal over the World Wide Web.
Whether sold to restaurant proprietors or fishing enthusiasts, dead fish, or portraits of the same, for example found ready takers.
Christie's Australian representative Ronan Sulich who consigned the collection and manned one of half a dozen phones during the sale said that the inclusion of a defined consignment from Mayfair decorators suppliers Colefax and Fowler helped guarantee the sale would be economic.
This consignment grossed stg155,503 again comfortably ahead of expectations.
Paintings by Bridget Riley and later 20th century fabrics and modern furniture from the couple's collection were sold last year by Deutscher and Hackett and John Williams in Sydney.
The latter was offered in Sydney because it attracts a higher rate of value added tax when imported for sale into the UK.
The Riley's were going to do well anywhere and the Deutscher and Hackett proprietors had a long established relationship with the two collectors.
Some of the purchases made in the room at Christie's final dispersal went to Australian buyers including neighbours from Australia.
Christie's oddly did not include the Australian dollar among the group of currencies that were chosen to help bidders in the simultaneously changing electronic box which indicated the progress of the bidding.
In the seventies Aitken was a decorator to the stars with a shop in London. One particular constant fan was actor Claudette Colbert.
Aitken's clients were highly cosmopolitan and it would have been nice to assume that when the British Virgin Islands and several other equally exotic sounding locations appeared on the bidder Internet screen, that it was due to this kind of link But time must have worn these earlier threads thin.
Bouret Gonzales, who has since left Australia to live with family in Canada. was a trader in Mexicana and had also a fine reputation as a top French fashion plate designer.
Russia, home of a new race of petro-tsars, popped up frequently as an Internet bidders location.
The most notable occasion during the sale was a three quarter length portrait of a named French noble in armour by the 17th century Anglo-Dutch artist Cornelis Johnson (lot 230) which went for stg32,500 hammer. The estimate was stg20,000 to stg40,000.
The portrait, like other instant ancestors in the sale had come via good dealerships notably Johnny van Haeften and Leger Galleries.
The top lot was another portrait, George Romney's Portrait of Mrs Moody, (lot 88) quite an identity in her day and part of a circle which embraced Lady Hamilton.
The portrait went for stg82,000 hammer or stg100,000 all up, against stg40,000 to stg60,000.
It's buyer was described as a member of the UK trade.
The work had appeared at Christie's twice and Sotheby's once at long intervals over the years.
Although Mossgreen made some strong sales of instant English ancestors at a recent house auction, Sulich said it would have been difficult to achieve a similar price in Australia.
The. most likely sort of interest in such prospects – speculative - tends to peter out around $20,000.
Oil paintings of dead fish by the 19th century Henry Jervis Alfred went swimmingly at $4375 and $3750.
The collection included three late vintage portraits by George Frederick Watts none of which had the magic of his earliest Pre-Raphaelite linked works and a rare presence even so in an Australian collection.
One of the sitters was to become Lady Tennyson which may help explain why the work (lot 226) came out at the top price of stg38,000 hammer, stg8000 above its upper estimate.
Picture dealers sniffed around the offering, with the final lots including works by another biggish Victorian name, William Etty, which went to a well known London saleroom identity.
The buyer known as Chin of Chin Fine Art said he was buying them for the leading collector of Ettys whom he did not name. He was very happy with his purchases.
Auctions were still a good place to buy, he said.
Portraits of naked male nudes rather than his celebrated female stunners, these were in the lower price bracket, the top price being stg11,000 for a naked Bacchus.
A panoramic view of Lahore from the Punjab Company School (lot 191) sold for stg65,000 hammer or stg80,500 a multiple of between four and six times its estimate.
There may still have been some mileage in it as this buyer was also described as UK trade.
The fine spread of Indian antique paintings and objects understandably eclipsed the lesser Chinese offerings.
They were helped by Indian room buyers, one of whom was followed around the room by a TV cameraman and therefore would have been hard put to stop bidding without losing face.
Drawings by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska sold for up to stg11,875, the price paid for a very fine Profile of a Girl, a charcoal nude.
Graham Sutherland's Head with Red Background (lot 93) made stg27,500 which was around three times the mid estimates.
Sulich thought the furniture prices matched the reduced expectations of recent year - a bit of a drag that is, although the sale's more imaginative and stylish offerings were far removed from the much out of fashion Victorian brown variety.
Louis XVI style beech wood sofa from the early 20th century made stg10,000 or stg12,910 with premium against estimates of stg1500 to stg2500.
The 18th century origins were not sufficient to save an English mahogany serpentine chest unashamedly attributed to Thomas Chippendale and it was passed in at stg1500 against estimates of stg6000 to stg10,000.
Minimalism might well be dead, for clutter did well, with a German buyer in the room putting some order to it.
With great eclectic presence a Victorian red and gilt letter box was hammered for its top estimate of stg3000, or stg3750 with premium.
Decorators are not stocking up on stock items like they used to, but private buyers are what the auction houses are looking for, and this is why Christie’s are trawling this part of the business themselves now.
The entire sale was 88 per cent sold by lot and 97 per cent by value.
