Savoy auctions Dietrich’s dancefloor

London's Savoy hotel is auctioning off 3,000 lots including a dancefloor on which Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier are rumoured to have romped. Also under the hammer in a sale which starts today are a piano at which Frank Sinatra sang, a bed slept in at various times by Lauren Bacall, Coco Chanel and Humphrey Bogart and the contents of a suite occupied by Charlie Chaplin. Speaking of her encounter with the debonair French singer, Dietrich is said to have boasted that the dancefloor had a lot of 'give'.

The famous hotel, built in 1889, is undergoing its biggest-ever refurbishment, at a cost of £100m. The three-day sale will attract bidders from all over the world, with many items going for inflated prices due to their associations with the rich and famous. Dietrich's scratched parquet dancefloor, from the Lancaster ballroom, has an estimated price of £400, but is expected to make much more. Bacall's bed, from room 412, would be a snip at its estimate of £1,500, but its associations should drive bids higher.

Other lots include two silver-plated butler's trolleys from the Grill, and the 24-bulb chandeliers from the Thames Foyer. Harvey Cammell of auctioneers Bonhams said: "Stepping into the hotel is like stepping back in time, a time when there was courtesy and manners. People want to buy into that."