Around the houses, December 2011

News from the main auction houses around the world

H&H SALE

On September 21 H&H hosted a sale at the Imperial War Museum and sold various interesting lots. One of which was the ex-Hubert Patthey, Ecurie des Trois Chevrons 1956 AC Ace Bristol. Patthey entered the car in the laboriously-named Grand Prix Suisse de la Montagne 011on-Villars Course International de Cote in 1956 soon after buying it and won the Group IV class.

One ‘interesting’ racer that didn’t find a new home was the 1983 Rover Vitesse TWR touring car. This may have had something to do with the fact that the car is “widely thought to be either TWR 001 or TWR 002” because “plates for both are to be found on the chassis”.

The talk of the day though was the 1929 Bentley 4½-litre ‘Le Mans’ that was supplied new to ‘Bentley Boy’ Captain Woolf Barnato. The car made up £528,000 worth of the £2.8m total for the sale.

It’s been a busy few months for the Cheshire-based auction house as it has just announced that it has created H&H Classic Rallies “with a view to raising the bar for the organisation of classic rallies”. The first event will be the 3000km Rally of Rajasthan in February 2012.

SILVERSTONE AUCTIONS

On November 4 Silverstone Auctions will host its third auction to date — The Walter Hayes Sale. Included in the car lots is a 2000 Lola B2K40 SRZ Sports Prototype (£95-110,000), the ex-Ex Gerry Marshall/Roger Payne 1979 Triumph Dolomite Sprint (£9-11,000), an ex-Johnny Herbert 1990 Reynard F3000 90D (£40-50,000) and a 2006 Crawford DP03 Grand-Am car (POA).

Other motor sport machines include the ex-Pedro de la Rosa 2000 Arrows A21 (£100-125,000), the unique 1963 Deep Sanderson DS 105 `Twinny’ (POA) and the 1961 Morgan +4 that finished 13th overall in the 1962 Le Mans 24 Hours (£125-165,000). For people looking for a good entry-level rally car there is a rally-prepped 1977 Ford Escort that is expected to sell for £10-14,000.

RMAUCTIONS

Fresh off the back of RM’s £37.8m haul at its Monterey sale on August 20, the company managed to net over £6m at its Hershey sale on October 6-7. Much of that was thanks to the world’s oldest running motor car — the 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos steam runabout that went for double its estimate at £2.95m.

AUCTIONS AMERICA

The extensive Lee Roy Hartung Collection (above) will be sold at Auctions America’s sale on November 3-5. The eclectic mix of machinery includes everything from a rare BMW Veritas convertible to porcelain signs, vintage toys, aircraft engines, automotive mascots and even typewriters.

BARRETT-JACKSON

The 2009 winner of the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals — the Don Prudhomme Racing 2009 US Smokeless Top Fuel Dragster — sold for £84,031 at Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas sale on September 22-24.

BONHAMS

Neither the ex-Dieter Quester and Rolf Stommelen 1979 BMW M1 Procar nor the 1976 BMW 3-litre CSL `Batmobile’ that won its class in the 1976 Le Mans 24 Hours found new homes at Bonhams’ sale on October 1.

However, a 1969 BMW `Spicup’ convertible coupe did sell for an impressive £401,903, a 1974 BMW 2002 rally car went for £19,090 and the ex-Keke Rosberg 1976 Toj-BMW Type 201 sold for £53,252.

Over in Fairfield, USA on September 20 Bonhams sold a 1938 Bugatti Type 57 Ventoux coupe for double its pre-sale estimate. Amazingly the car has only covered 22,000km since new. The car was re-commissioned by Bonhams and eventually sold for £213,630.