Saturday (21 May 2011) Bonhams held another highly successful sale of Aston Martin cars and memorabilia at the Aston Works Service, Newport Pagnell with an outstanding total of £6million achieved and 99.6% sold by lot, 98.5% by value – only one of the 245 lots offered remained unsold. The sale witnessed the largest attendance to date with some 2,000 people visiting the Works Service. The top selling car of the day was lot 333, a beautifully restored 1963 DB4 Series V Vantage Convertible that sold for a predicted £507,500. With only 60,000 miles on the odometer, the similar example barn-find 1963 […]
Saturday (21 May 2011) Bonhams held another highly successful sale of Aston Martin cars and memorabilia at the Aston Works Service, Newport Pagnell with an outstanding total of £6million achieved and 99.6% sold by lot, 98.5% by value – only one of the 245 lots offered remained unsold.
The sale witnessed the largest attendance to date with some 2,000 people visiting the Works Service.
The top selling car of the day was lot 333, a beautifully restored 1963 DB4 Series V Vantage Convertible that sold for a predicted £507,500.
With only 60,000 miles on the odometer, the similar example barn-find 1963 Aston Martin DB4 Convertible was also keenly fought over before it finally sold for an outstanding £309,500 against a pre-sale estimate of £80,000-140,000.
Another surprising result for a barn-discovery was lot 316, the Aston Martin DB5 Saloon that witnessed a battle between 11 telephone bidders; five absentee bidders and seven people in the room – and finally realising £282,000 against an estimate of £50,000-60,000.
Lot 340, a 2009 Aston Martin Rapide Sports Saloon that was used Dr Ulrich Bez (Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd’s CEO) and sold by the Company in aid of charities providing relief following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan was also offered. As expected there was much interest in this car and after a spirited bidding battle it sold to Viscount Linley for £112,000 (estimate £80,000 – 100,000).
Two cars converted by the Works Service to be identical replica’s of two of Bonds iconic Aston Martins, from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Living Daylights both sold for over their pre-sale estimate realising £106,000 (estimate £50,000-70,000) and £172,000 respectively (estimate £70,000-100,000).
Other top sellers included a rare 1965 DB5 Vantage Shooting Brake at £430,500 (estimate of £250,000-300,000).
Kingsley Riding-Felce, Director of Aston Martin Works Service said, “Once again we’ve had more people than ever before turn out to come to Works Service in Newport Pagnell for what has become the most important sale of Aston Martins on the international calendar. The sale results once again demonstrate the ever growing interest in heritage Aston Martins.”
Prior to the Aston Martin sale, the auction of “Le Grandes Marques a Monaco” took place in Monte Carlo on Friday (20th May) and made a total of €3.3million. A Spanish Championship-winning and Italian national vice-champion, 1976/1983 Ferrari 308GTB Berlinetta Group B Michelotto realised €460,000 after an extensive round of bidding, while a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTS Spyder fetched €437,000.
Highlights of the sale also included a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL “Gullwing” Coupe. One of only fifty-nine models delivered to the UK, the car was the motor car of choice for members of the motoring elite in 1955 and demand was equally high over fifty years later, realising an impressive €563,000.
James Knight, Global Head of Collectors Motor Cars at Bonhams, comments, “It is a testament not only to the Bonhams Motoring Group’s ability, but also to our corporate infrastructure, that we were able to conduct two sales in Europe over one weekend. More than 100 motor cars were offered in 24 hours realising over €10m (£8.9m) and I’m very satisfied with the results achieved.”
