Andy's Ice

Some may have reacted nonchalantly to the $25.3 million worth of collectibles found at the late Andy Warhol's East Side town house, but even the artist's most blase fans were surprised by the recent discovery of sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, and watches hidden in the false-bottomed drawers of his filing cabinets. While the jewels—which will be sold at a benefit auction for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts at Sotheby's on December 4—add to the posthumous portrait of the artist in his later years, Vanity Fair contributing editor Jesse Kombluth's new book, Pre-Pop Warhol (Panache Press at Random House), adds to our knowledge of him in his early years. Chock-full of the early shoe drawings and dust jackets that were Warhol's stock-in-trade, the book gives us important clues about how the pale-faced commercial draftsman turned into the Pop master with a secret passion for Patek Philippe.

C.B.