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As winter turns to spring, the classic car auction
calendar gets into full swing in April
On 9th of that month H&H offered a varied selection
at their traditional Buxton venue, but with no
market defining cars or results. A Rolls-Royce
20/25 Sports Saloon for just £12,500
does, however, illustrate what superb value pre-war
luxury cars can be.
Three days later at the Techno Classica Show in
Essen, Germany, Coys of Kensington confounded
just about everybody as to which cars were actually
sold and which weren't, and a number of cars were
ominously marked "refer department".
Coys also pioneered at this sale the concept of
listing some cars' chassis numbers as "refer
department"… The mysterious Porsche 550 Spyder
was unsold, although the Porsche 910 was declared
as sold for EUR320,000. The catalogue does not
specify which of the claimants to this chassis
number was the one for sale in Essen…
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1967 Porsche 910
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EUR95,528 was huge money for the Porsche 356 'Pre
A' Cabriolet, whilst a 356 Speedster did not seem
expensive at EUR50,000.
Just two weeks later Coys was back in action at
their now familiar Islington venue which was dealt
with in my last market report.
Things moved up another gear in May with a colossal
Bonhams sale at the Boston Museum of Transportation
in Brookline/Mass. This was a vast estate dispersal
with everything under the hammer from vintage
fire engines through workshop machinery, motor
cycles, motor cars and even furniture. The fact
that every single lot except for a solitary motorcycle
was sold illustrates the continuing popularity
of estate sales and the resilience of the US market
despite recent economic woes.
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7th May was an important day for H&H with their
first foray into the London market, traditionally
'enemy held' territory. Without wishing to appear
biased (which of course I am) this was a rather
disappointing sale which cannot have satisfied
the organisers.
An AC
428 Convertible was sold for £24,725,
almost half what a similar car made in Geneva
last year. An AC
Bristol was strong at £61,813 but the
Mercedes-Benz
300SL Gullwing sold after the auction to a
Northern dealer for £100,000 (and resold
this week for a very substantial profit) was almost
£50,000 less than a similar car achieved
in Monaco a few weeks later. There are no miracles
in the auction business and those in search of
the lowest commissions will be disappointed if
they expect champagne cars and presentation for
beer money. I wish H&H well, they're nice
people, but this sale will have struggled to cover
its costs.
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Aston Martin Factory,
Newport Pagnell
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Moving northwards to Newport Pagnell, Bonhams 10th
May sale at the Aston Martin factory set a new
market price for a nice left-hand drive DB4
GT at £280,000, and the ex-James
Bond Aston Martin Vanquish should give its
new owner lots of street cred, costing him an
above estimate £190,000 plus taxes … A lot
of money by anybody's standards but probably a
shrewd long-term buy.
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more >
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