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Own history: Kennedy relics to be auctioned

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You'll have a chance to buy a piece of history next weekend. Furniture and decorative items from the Kennedy's old Palm Beach home will be auctioned off.

The auction basically gives you an inside look into the life of the Kennedys and their "Winter White House".

From desks and partitions, to living room chairs and the dining room table, each item has a story.

"During the Bay of Pigs crisis, the meetings and discussions that would have taken place here are really remarkable," Donna Tribby explains while sitting on a chair which was kept in the house's cabinet room.

She is organizing the auction through Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. She says President John F. Kennedy interviewed members of his cabinet in the house.

An eight-panel floor screen for sale originally belonged to Winston Churchill's daughter. The story goes Joseph and Rosemary Kennedy were visiting Lady Mary Soames in England. Rosemary offered to trade her fur coat for the screen and the deal was accepted.

Bedroom furniture includes the beds John, Robert and Teddy slept on during visits to the home.

"This is our royal family. There's this whole aura of Camelot," Tribby says.

The family's dining room table and chairs are for sale. Auctioneers say they've discovered which members of the family sat in which seats.

A lot of the furniture was designed by Addison Mizner, the architect who built the Palm Beach house in the 1920's. Rodman Wanamaker was the home's first owner. He left much of the furniture to the Kennedy's who moved in next. They owned the home for about 60 years.

John Castle and his wife bought the home and the furniture in the 90's. They sold the beachfront home last year, but kept the furniture and are putting it up for sale now.

"It's just wonderful seeing all these things and they've been kept in such good condition," Tribby says.

The auction is Saturday, January 23 at the Leslie Hindman showroom at 1608 S. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. For more information, and a look everything for sale,click here.