Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans
Only recently exposed to cruel daylight after some 40 years hibernation, 1964 Jaguar E Type project with decades of dust and barn droppings was exposed to the bright lights of the latest H&H sale at Duxford, where the S1 3.8 FHC non-runner was applauded for costing the winning benefactor £78,400 with premium.
In the same weighty catalogue of 139 classics meanwhile, a 1966 E Type 4.2 OTS with hardtop ‘Garden Find’ had emerged from slumbering under a tarpaulin next to a holly-bush since the early 2000s to be taken on for £67,200, another more than top estimate result. Can there really be any more Sleeping Beauty or Basket Case E Types out there waiting ‘to be discovered’? Considering how relatively mass-bred these Coventry cats were in the first place, all eleven of them in the Imperial War Museum hangar at Duxford were re-homed in post-Brexit result Britain.
Exceeding their guide prices during a £4.44m grossing afternoon (including the preceding motorcycles session, an overall sale total of £4.9m was claimed by the auctioneers) were a sharp as a knife and catalogue cover starring 1959 XK150SE, for which a winning bidder had to pay £252,000 – the 3.4-litre Drophead had been pre-sale estimated at £135,000-165,000. A recently slower to shift 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom I All-Weather Tourer meanwhile had come to public market for the first time in 47 years to make £112,000. Up to £80,000 had been suggested.
With an up to £70,000 forecast, a 1990 Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo 2, one of the 502 homologation edition made, sold for £90,720 and a 1934 Alvis Speed 20 SC went for £72,800. The Open Tourer in Vanden Plas-style had been guided at up to £55,000. A 1988 Pirelli Marathon and 1991 VSCC Pomeroy Trophy exercised 1967 Porsche 911S SWB raised £69,440, after more than the up to £60,000 forecast, and a 1933 Singer 2-Litre Fox and Nicholl Team Rep cost a nostalgic £58,240 to beat a £50,000 top estimate figure.
A Virginian ‘Barn Discovered’ in 2008 and then Florida restored 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk1 2.6 went for a within guide price band £192,640 as did a 1930 AM International 1½-Litre Short Chassis Tourer for four sold for a forecast £123,200. By Green contrast, by far the cheapest lot had been a far from electrifying Isle of Wight made Enfield 8000 all-electric city car of 1975 vintage, which generated (!) a frugal £1175.
Before the landing lights were extinguished at the now brown-signed former RAF airfield beside the M11, 94 or 68% of the classics on the entry list had either sold ‘live’ under the hammer or had had their provisionally logged bids successfully converted into sales. While the original 7 hours or more duration auction could be re-viewed on demand on you-tube, a secondary auction then commenced on-line as the 45 no-sales were given a second chance of selling by being e-blasted to the H&H i-mailing list as still being available. Traditional auctioneers who sold stuff under the hammer or not at all would not be impressed or would they?