The MR PORTER team choose their favourite lots from the upcoming Sotheby’s art sale.

Shallow creatures that we are, usually when we publish a Staff Picks feature, it’s about clothing. This week, however, we’re broadening our horizons. On 24 October, there is an auction at Sotheby’s of the work of Mr Howard Hodgkin. If you are unfamiliar with the abstract British artist, who passed away last March, he was influenced by the likes of Messrs JMW Turner, Edouard Vuillard and Henri Matisse and one of his best-known pieces of work is the banyan tree mural he created for the British Council building in New Delhi in 1992. He was awarded a CBE and a knighthood in his long and critically acclaimed career. As well as his own work, the Sotheby’s auction will see pieces of art from his collection go on sale. “The discreet exterior of Howard Hodgkin’s London home gave you no indication of the richness within,” says the Sotheby’s description of the auction. “Opening the door was like stepping into one of his most vibrant paintings. Objects from India to Italy, which suggest a modern day Grand Tour, were displayed side by side, heightened by the sensational jewel-like tones of the walls.” With our appetites sufficiently whetted, we had a look at the long list of lots and picked out the things we want most. Not that we can actually afford to bid for them, of course. We’ve already spent this month’s salary on clothing.

This is a sentence I never thought I would write: I want a Flemish tapestry. I could explain this away as merely another depressing indicator of my ever-advancing years – next it will be a cup of lukewarm Ovaltine, a footstool and a Midsomer Murders marathon, I suppose – or I could put a more positive spin on the whole thing and say that I saw one in Sydney-based tailor Patrick Johnson’s very beautifully decorated apartment, and loved how it looked. According to the lot description, this one comes with free “allegorical figures”, which is just the sort of thing I like to muse upon while grinding through the Fruit ’n Fibre each morning.

Art can be a confusing business. So, in the face of abstract paintings, Biblical tapestries and 17th-century tabletops, I’m selecting something a little simpler. Something immediate and uncomplicated. Something I’d have no trouble explaining to people were they to see it hanging in my house.

“Plasterer’s Mate” may well be the most underwhelming title for anything, ever. Which is a totally comforting and rather amusing thing.

As much as I love Mr Howard Hodgkin’s paintings, his taste in interiors doesn’t really do it for me, so I’m strictly here for the steals. It’s a tawdry business, hunting for bargains in the auction of a dead man’s estate, but let’s not get bogged down in sentimentality. There's some good stuff in the lower lots. Lot 415 is a collection of 33 picture and mirror frames from the artist’s studio, which, if it goes for its lower estimate of £300, works out at less than a tenner each. Lot 312, a mid-century armchair designed by Eero Saarinen, looks set to go for somewhere between £100 and £200. It’s a fixer-upper and it’s missing the seat cushion, but remember that you’ll spend between five and ten times as much on an official reproduction from Skandium.

Although it’s wholly impractical, I’m drawn to this jazzy old-fashioned suitcase from the 1980s. Sourced in India and covered in Mr Hodgkin’s trademark paint streaks, it’s the kind of thing I’d love to carry to brighten up my daily commute and imagine that I’m riding the Maharajas’ Express to work, rather than London’s suffocating Central Line.

I would choose the two pretty 17th-century panels in lot 155. Not only do I admire the craftsmanship in the scagliola technique, but they would provide a nice contrast with the more contemporary pictures I’ve collected over the years. They would also fit perfectly between the windows in my living room, which is painted a dark greyish blue. It’s my birthday in a few days, so if anyone is stuck for an idea…