Previously unknown objects and artworks from the personal collection of Claude Monet, which have remained with the artist’s family, are to be sold at auction.

The trove of objects includes artworks by Monet himself and his friends such as Édouard Manet, Auguste Rodin and Paul Signac; Japanese prints that he owned and that inspired him; and more personal items such as photographs, his spectacles and a garden pot.

Adrien Meyer, co-chair of Christie’s impressionist and modern art department, said it was a collection that had “remained with the family of Claude Monet right until this day. It encapsulates the magic of the man, not only the artist but the collector he was.”



The items were all owned by Monet’s son Michel, who died in 1966, leaving almost everything to France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts and its Marmottan Museum.



But Michel also had a daughter he did not formally recognise – Rolande Verneiges. Evidently Michel gifted various items to Verneiges while he was alive and it is these items that have been rediscovered and are being sold.

A pair of Monet’s golden metal spectacles. Photograph: Christie's Images Ltd

Verneiges died in 2008 and it was three years ago that Meyer was invited to the family home of her descendant to discover, tucked away in drawers and in cardboard boxes, the remarkable Monet trove. “This is what we do our job for, to experience these unexpected encounters and stories,” Meyer said.

The collection includes paintings and drawings by Monet that, because they were owned by Michel, are known by the art world and are in the catalogue raisonné. Their whereabouts had previously been a mystery.

They include an early example from Monet’s series of views of poplar trees, most of which are in museums. Trois Arbres à Giverny (Peupliers) from 1887 is being sold with an estimate of $2m-$3m (£1.5m-£2.3m).

A letter to Monet from Paul Signac, sent in 1920. Photograph: Christie's Images Ltd

At the other end of the price scale is a pair of Monet’s spectacles ($1,000-$1,500) and a terracotta pot that can be spotted in several paintings such as The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil, which is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. That has an estimate of $1,000-$2,000.

Works by other artists are also in the collection, including a watercolour by Rodin of Salome. “The expert on Rodin fell off her chair when she saw it,” said Meyer. It has an estimate of $50,000-$80,000.

Because the market for Monet is particularly strong in east Asia, Christie’s is holding its 54-lot auction in Hong Kong on 26 November, available to view in London for a week from 30 September. It will also, for the first time, transmit live to its Paris saleroom where European buyers can bid.

Meyer said Verneiges was “a very modest and discreet woman” and that it was an honour to offer the rediscovered pieces at auction for the first time.