PARIS, Dec 18, 2001/ --- Though he’ll go down in history as one of the greatest fashion designers ever, when it comes to collecting, and artistic business acumen, Karl Lagerfeld is up there with the best.

On Thursday in Paris, Lagerfeld’s unusual collection of 20th-century furniture and objects in a style he largely made fashionable fetched high prices in the opening week of auctions at Christie’s headquarters here.

A rare forged-iron mirror with stylized branches by Gilbert Poillerat fetched $112,000, twice its estimate, while a pair of eight-foot-high plaster lamps from which hung monkeys by Serge Roche sold for $25,000, again twice their estimate.

Karl began collecting these mid-century creations in the mid-‘90s, drawn, in part, by the fact that they represented one of the last periods of great craftsmanship. He decorated a modern apartment overlooking the Mediterranean in Monaco with the collection and then fueled demand for the style by letting magazines like W and Madame Figaro shoot the space.

A 1940s desk with remarkable marquetry featured in those articles went under the hammer, as did some unusual Sevres table centerpieces of seahorses and mermaids.

Though most sales were made to anonymous phone bids, the chance of acquiring something with Lagerfeld’s provenance attracted a jolly crew of professional dealers, well-heeled collectors and a banker in a bespoke suit whose wife wore a Fendi cavewoman mink coat designed by Lagerfeld.

There was plenty of brisk bidding. Christie’s sold 99 percent of the 86 lots offered, raking in a total of $1,033,050, twice the low estimate for the entire collection.

Due to recent changes in French regulations, "foreign" market leaders Sotheby’s and Christie’s are finally allowed to hold auctions in Paris, creating a new source of amusement and action for the native haute bourgeois.

Karl, who periodically sells parts of his wide-ranging collections, didn’t appear at the auction. But his accountant did, looking mighty pleased.