LONDON, ENGLAND (April 22, 2009) – Bonhams’s sale of an airworthy two-seater Vickers-Supermarine MkIX Spitfire aircraft for $2.5m on 20th April at the RAF Museum, Hendon, London, did not overshadow the cars in the same sale which enjoyed a virtual sell-out, raising the sale total of cars and aircraft to $5.4m
Top lot amongst the 76 cars was lot 320, a 1905 Gardner-Serpollet 18hp Type L Steamer with Tulip Phaeton Coachwork. True to its type it steamed ahead of its pre-sale estimates to reach a boiling hot price of $345k.
Also impressive was lot 337, the 1938 Jaguar SS 100 Roadster, just behind the Gardner-Serpollet and the Spitfire, at $289k.
James Knight, International MD of Collectors Cars at Bonhams said: “It was a great pleasure to take this sale which was a virtual sell-out. It just goes to show that if you offer the best and most exciting cars or indeed, aircraft, the interest created brings in buyers prepared to bid with real commitment for them.”
“In the years ahead we will doubtless have the pleasure of seeing the Spitfire in the skies above England and the Gardner-Serpollet on the roads.”
He said the Gardner-Serpollet had gone to a major European collector. The strength of the Euro encouraged a big turnout of buyers from the Continent and for the first time in a while there was Japanese interest in the sale with two cars going to the Far East.