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H&H consigns a ‘timewarp’ Bugatti Type 57 and ‘barn find’ Lister Sports Racer for its Summer Sales

South to Surrey

Set amidst the rolling Surrey Hills and yet within easy reach of Guildford, Loseley Park can trace its history back to the Domesday Book of 1086. A trusted advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, Sir William More built the present Manor House between 1562 and 1568 using masonry salvaged from nearby Waverley Abbey (itself a twelfth-century building). Still home to his descendents, this imposing Elizabethan edifice is surrounded by stunning parkland not to mention a walled garden, ornamental lake and plethora of ancient trees. Visited by various monarchs from Queen Elizabeth I in the 1560s through to Queen Mary during the 1930s, Loseley Park will play host to H&H for the first time on Sunday June 8th 2008.

With a large clear-span marquee in which to house the cars, motorcycles and automobilia as well as good road / rail / airport links, the sale promises to be a great event and has already attracted a suitably aristocratic 1936 Bugatti Type 57 Graber Sports Saloon as the headline lot. Invoiced to Bugatti’s Swiss agency, Bucar SA, on September 19th 1936, chassis 57443 was subsequently dispatched to Carrosserie Graber. Believed but not warranted to be a one-off commissioned by its architect first owner, the resultant Sports Saloon offered the same internal accommodation as a factory-bodied ‘Galibier’ but with far more flamboyant packaging.

The last of a long line of Bugattis to have belonged to the vendor’s family, chassis 57443 was purchased from A. van Ramshorst’s renowned ‘NV Albatros’ dealership in November 1962. Resident in Sweden before then, the past forty-six years have seen it used for a variety of touring duties including attending a wedding at Molsheim. Pleasingly retaining its original leather upholstery, the Type 57 is in unrestored but running order (though, the engine was treated to an extensive overhaul by Jan Keizer of Doetinchem in 1991). A familiar sight in Dutch Bugatti circles and well known to the late Hugh Conway with whom the vendor’s family were good friends, this ‘timewarp’ Graber Sports Saloon carries a saleroom estimate of £100,000 - £120,000.

Back to Buxton

H&H’s ancestral home and the venue at which we have established more auction world record prices than any other, the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton will be the site of our second summer sale on July 22nd -23rd 2008. Following on from the success of last November’s £1.5million auction, we are anticipating a strong result and have already been instructed to sell a ‘barn find’ Lister sports racer which boasts a wonderful history. Having finished 2nd overall aboard his Jehu Riley Special at the 1954 Bol D’Or 24-hours, John Horridge determined to go one better the following year. Enlisting the help of Geoffrey Beetson (a fellow Lancastrian and former Le Mans entrant), the pair bought a brand new Lister sports racing chassis ‘BHL9’ to which they fitted a Riley 1.5 litre engine and two-seater fibreglass bodywork.

Road registered as ‘DEN 275’ on 9th May 1955, the resultant Lister-Riley duly lined up for the Bol D’Or 24-hours Grand Prix de Paris some six days later. Running against Porsche 550, Maserati A6GCS, Ferrari 500 Mondial and Gordini T15S opposition, the Lister was forced to retire with big-end failure. Returning to the UK, it then entered various domestic meetings but met with little success. By the year’s end Beetson had apparently lost interest in the project and ceased his co-driving duties. Undeterred, Horridge had the Lister re-engineered for 1956 with a Bristol engine and while their first few outings were unspectacular, car and driver soon picked up momentum. Despite an unwelcome retirement from the April British Empire Trophy meeting, 1957 promised to be even better until a coming together with Lance Reventlow’s Maserati at Snetterton on July 27th.

Reputedly assuming full responsibility for the accident which left Horridge with a broken spine, Reventlow had ‘BHL9’ returned to Lister for substantial repairs. While, the exact details of its reconstruction have yet to be verified, it is thought that the Cambridge firm rebuilt the sports racer using the chassis from ‘BHL3’ (formerly registered as ‘VPP 9’) and an ex-Works ‘flatiron’ alloy body. Retiring from its final Continental outing at the Grand Prix des Frontiers on May 5th 1958, ‘DEN 275’ was put up for sale some three months later - Horridge having switched allegiance to Lotus. Although, advertised as “just completely rebuilt”, the Lister was by then a little long in the tooth and did not change hands until 1966. Entering the current ownership in August 1969, the sports racer was reportedly used for various sprints and hillclimbs during the 1970s but without distinction. Laid-up for many years in a partially dismantled state, the two-seater nevertheless appears to be substantially complete. An exciting restoration project, this ‘barn find’ Lister Bristol is potentially eligible for some of the world’s most prestigious historic racing events and wears a saleroom estimate of £50,000 - £70,000.

STOP PRESS

H&H are delighted to announce that they will be holding an auction at the Haynes Motor Museum, Sparkford, near Yeovil on October 21st-22nd 2008

For more information please contact H&H direct on 01925 730630 or info@handh.co.uk

ENDS

Super rare Aston Martins make over half-a-million pounds at H&H’s inaugural Harrogate auction

Despite the doom and gloom pervading the current economic climate, H&H enjoyed a notably successful sale on its first visit to Harrogate. Auction goers both old and new were bowled over by the Harrogate International Centre’s spacious indoor exhibition facilities. Newly refurbished but not yet open to the general public, the adjoining Royal Hall had its floor area decorated with automobilia and its VIP boxes filled with racing motorcycles. With its towering ceiling, gilt-laden mouldings and classical tableau paintings, this truly magnificent ‘saleroom’ played host to visitors from throughout the British Isles and Europe as well as others from South Africa and Japan.

Perhaps understandably given its rarity and importance within the canon of Aston Martin models, the DB6 Short Chassis Volante (1 of 37) attracted international interest. A presentable but by no means concours car, it sold to Europe for a new auction world record price of £324,500. Not quite as scarce as its open-topped sibling, the 1962 Aston Martin DB4 Series IV Vantage (1 of 45) had undergone a sympathetic and well executed restoration. Simply stunning ‘in the metal’, the grand tourer boasted an enlarged engine capacity and close ratio gears. A sophisticated alternative to the ubiquitous DB5, it was bought by an American collector for £209,000. Although, these two Astons hogged the limelight by taking some £533,500 between them, the sale witnessed a number of strong results throughout.

Highlight among the prewar cars was the delightfully patinated 1937 Lagonda LG45 Drophead Coupe. Entered by a Northern Irish collector, it was sold to a European enthusiast for £88,000. Hailing from the same Lincolnshire stable, the 1926 Delage DI Tourer and 1935 Railton Eight Saloon commanded £18,150 and £17,600 respectively. All four of the catalogued Bentleys changed hands with the highest price going to the 1951/69 Bentley MKVI Turbocharged Special at £27,500. Though, the 1937 4.25 Litre Saloon (£24,750), 1988 Mulsanne S (£15,675) and dilapidated 1956 Bentley S1 Freestone & Webb Saloon (£10,780) were keenly contested too. Another restoration project but one bearing the highly appropriate registration number ‘XKA 1’, the 1956 Jaguar XK140 Roadster comfortably exceeded its high estimate to fetch £31,900. Pleasingly, the three cars consigned from the Yorkshire Motor Museum found new owners with the delightful 1923 Wolseley 10HP ‘200 Mile Race’ Recreation recording £25,300, the 2003 Jaguar XKR Coupe £18,700 and the 1970 Triumph TR6 £10,175.

With the motorcycle section crammed full of racing machinery including four ex-Works bikes, department head George Beale knew the chances of a 100% sales rate were slim (though, he did achieve this for the road bike entries). Nevertheless the highly-strung thoroughbreds that did change hands made respectable prices including a Suzuki RG500 MK2 (£12,650), Triumph Trident (£12,650) and Honda RS250 (£8,000). The highest price achieved in the automobilia section was £2,025 for a well restored Austin J40 pedal car. While, a Nash ‘Authorised Service’ enamel sign (£1,406), ‘Gilbert & Barker’ hand-operated petrol pump (£731) and Louis Stanley’s BRDC Car Badge (£618) also performed strongly.

Bugatti T57 to headline Loseley Park auction

H&H will be travelling to another new venue for its next sale on June 8th 2008. Situated just minutes from Guildford town centre, Loseley House was built at the instruction of Queen Elizabeth I in 1562 and visited by Her Majesty several times thereafter. Within easy reach of the M25 motorway, Guildford mainline railway station (just 30mins from London Waterloo) and Heathrow and Gatwick airports, the imposing manor house and its landscaped grounds are the perfect setting for an example of that most aristocratic of marques, Bugatti. Supplied new to Swiss agent Bucar SA and clothed by Carrosserie Graber, chassis 57443 has been in the current Dutch ownership since 1962. Believed but not warranted to be a one off, its sports saloon coachwork boasts ‘pillarless’ construction, concealed rear door handles / hinges and sculpted swage lines. Still retaining its original leather upholstery, the Type 57 is offered for sale in unrestored condition and carries a saleroom estimate of £100,000 - £120,000.

For more information and images please contact H&H direct on 0044 (0) 1925 730 630 or info@handh.co.uk

ENDS

H&H to Auction Joey Dunlop & Barry Sheene ex-Works Racing Motorcycles

With some seven World Championships between them Ulsterman Joey Dunlop and Londoner Barry Sheene are remembered as two of the greatest riders ever to have sat astride a motorcycle. Divided by temperament but united by talent, each was a legendary figure within the sport and retains a legion of fans to this day. Dating from the start of Dunlop’s Works career and the end of Sheene’s, H&H will be putting three very special bikes under the hammer at The Royal Hall, Harrogate on Wednesday April 16th 2008.

‘King of the Roads’

The odds of anyone ever surpassing Joey Dunlop’s record of twenty-six TT victories are microscopic. A measure of his dominance around the Isle of Man circuit, the great man not only achieved the fabled ‘triple’ in 1985 by winning that year’s Junior, Senior and F1 races but also repeated this remarkable feat in 1988 and 2000. A highly versatile racer characterised by a super-smooth riding style that allowed him to excel on bikes of any engine size, Dunlop also topped the podium at twenty-four Ulster Grand Prix and thirteen North West 200 meetings not mention capturing the F1 World Championship title an incredible five times.

One of the bikes which helped Dunlop achieve F1 supremacy, the 1982 Honda RS1000 being offered for sale has been authenticated by his contemporary Works mechanic, George Rowlingson. Specially built for Dunlop by the newly formed Honda Racing Corporation and supplied via Honda Britain, the bike is a veritable work of art. Based around a lightweight steel frame and powered by a titanium-filled short-stroke 998cc four-cylinder engine, it is finished in period correct livery right down to the appropriate sponsorship decals. Shy, retiring and modest to a fault, Dunlop was also somewhat superstitious always riding with a red t-shirt under his leathers and a signature yellow helmet. A Honda stalwart, the part-time publican enjoyed a special relationship with the Works from 1982 right up until his untimely death in 2000. A great bike ridden by a great man, the RS1000 carries a saleroom estimate of £90,000 - £100,000.

‘Lucky Number 7’

Unlike Dunlop, Barry Sheene had no particular love for the 37-mile long Isle of Man TT course once commenting that: “This is not racing, it’s a suicide mission”. Plain talking and hard living – at one stage his race helmet famously carried a drill hole so that he could smoke on the grid – Sheene’s public profile was more in keeping with that of a rock star than a motorcycle racer. Indeed, his promised presence at a race meeting was reputedly capable of generating an extra 10,000 ticket sales! Yet for all the swagger and ruthless self-promotion, he was both blindingly quick and immensely brave. It was this latter quality that arguably endeared him most to the public.

Enduring two gut wrenchingly horrific accidents during ten years of competition in motorcycling’s ‘Blue Riband’ class, the 500cc World Championship, Sheene bounced back from the first to win the 1976 and 1977 World Championships with Suzuki. The second, however, which happened during practice for the 1982 British Grand Prix (just as he seemed poised for a third title) should undoubtedly have ended his career. Despite being rendered immobile for almost five months and parting ways with Yamaha, Sheene managed to talk his way back into the Works Suzuki squad. Unable to finish the 1983 World Championship higher than fourteenth, Sheene’s swansong season the following year saw him placed sixth overall.

Dating from the last two years of his 500cc World Championship career, the 1983 Suzuki XR40 and 1984 Suzuki XR45 offered for sale are both finished in their correct blue over white livery and adorned with Sheene’s ‘Lucky Number 7’. Beautifully engineered, each is a reminder of that golden two-stroke GP500 era in which Barry Sheene played such an important role. The older of the two bikes carries a saleroom estimate of £60,000 - £70,000, while the younger one – which is reputedly the last Works Suzuki that Sheene rode – is guided at £70,000 - £80,000.

Although, unable to boast a rider of the stature of Dunlop or Sheene, the fourth ex-Works Racing motorcycle included in the April 16th sale, a 1979 Honda RS1000 Endurance, did manage to win the hugely important 1979 Suzuka 8-hour race and lead most of the 1979 Bol d’Or. Part of a private collection for many years and adorned with a host of bespoke RCB parts, it has been estimated at £80,000 - £90,000. While, those with shallower pockets but an appreciation of race-bred engineering could well be tempted by the Bennett Engineering-built Benelli four-cylinder replica, Triumph Trident or two Suzuki RG500 bikes that are on offer.

For more information please contact H&H direct on 01925 730 630 or info@handh.co.uk

H&H makes a £1.5million start to the year at Cheltenham Racecourse

H&H’s third visit to The Centaur Complex at Cheltenham Racecourse on 26th – 27th February was rewarded with a number of new world auction and in-house records not to mention a gross sale total of over £1.5million. Benefiting from fine weather and held in conjunction with www.liveauctioneers.com the two-day event drew bidders from as far afield as North America, the Far East and mainland Europe (their participation being partially due to the fact that all lots were listed on eBay some ten days prior to the sale).

Although, falling just short of its pre-sale estimate, the £550,000 achieved by the 1935 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder was a new world auction record for a 6C 2300. One of just sixty first generation Pescara models, the Spyder boasted unique Touring coachwork, Mille Miglia history and an infamous first owner, Benito Mussolini. A multiple concours winner on both sides of the Atlantic it has been acquired by a private European collector. Given the disquiet currently pervading the global economy, it was perhaps unsurprising that the auction witnessed some hesitant bidding despite a very crowded saleroom. Nevertheless, it produced a variety of strong results. Six out of the seven cars entered by a German enthusiast found new homes with the 1949 Cadillac Series 61 Sedanet Fastback Coupe (£23,100) and 1952 Jaguar XK120 Fixed Head Coupe (£27,775) both comfortably exceeding their top estimates.

The two red Jaguar E-types garnered a lot of interest and sold well with the beautifully restored 1962 3.8 litre Series 1 ‘Flat Floor’ Fixed Head Coupe making £38,500 and the 18,000 miles from new 1973 5.3 litre Series 3 Roadster fetching £37,400. Both the Ferraris on offer were successfully despatched with the rare right-hand drive 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC exceeding its top estimate at £110,000 and the 3,800 miles from new 1990 Ferrari Mondial T commanding a more accessible £25,850. Among the road-going rarities, the right-hand drive 1960 Facel Vega HK500 took £34,925, the 1961 / 1962 Lazenby ‘Lotus 17’ Special £26,000 and the 1939 Raymond Mays Special Tourer £23,100. With the ex-Colin McRae 1992 Subaru Legacy RS Rally Car being sold pre-auction via private treaty, it was left to the ex-Tour de France class winning 1967 Austin Mini Cooper S to headline the competition car results at £44,000. Though, the 1966 / 1967 Brahma B2 Sports Racer Rolling Chassis and 1959 Fafnir Formula Junior also changed hands for £19,800 and £14,750 respectively.

Almost certainly a new world auction record for a British single-cylinder, the estimate busting £45,650 achieved by the ex-Tommy Robb 1962 AJS 7R generated a well deserved round of applause. While, other impressive prices among the motorcycles included the 1951 Vincent Rapide Series C (£24,750), 1948 Norton Manx 30M (£12,100) and barn find c.1961 Aermacchi Racer (£5,060). A wonderful looking machine, the c.1884 Coventry Rotary headed the bicycle results at £5,500. Though, the £3,080 paid for the 1893 Crypto-Bantam and the £396 bid for the 1900 Singer Ladies Tricycle were notable too. Bolstered by a fine collection of models and property from an anonymous museum, the automobilia section totalled some £65,000 – a new house record. Top price of the day went to the Jackie Stewart / Tyrell-Ford Original Artwork by Tony Smith (£2,925) but it was closely followed by the charming Austin Seven Electric Child’s Car (£2,812) and imposing Napier Motors sign (£2,137).

Overall, the sale grossed in excess of £1,500,000

Rare Astons at the Royal Hall

Our next auction will be held on 15th – 16th April at The Royal Hall, Harrogate International Centre, Yorkshire and has already attracted two very desirable Aston Martins namely a 1962 DB4 Series IV Vantage (Estimate: £200,000 - £240,000) and a 1966 DB6 Short Chassis Volante (Estimate: £300,000 - £350,000). Other interesting lots comprise a collection of original Gurney Nutting coachwork drawings and assorted Mike Hailwood memorabilia.

For more information and images please contact H&H direct on 0044 (0) 1925 730 630 or info@handh.co.uk

ENDS

Marcus Ross Joins H&H From Bonhams

Cheshire auction house expands after another record year

Having enjoyed another record year in 2007, H&H has strengthened its hard working team of specialists with the addition of Marcus Ross.

Marcus joins H&H as Senior Car Specialist alongside Damian Jones. A self-confessed petrol head, he spent the first 10 years of his working life selling advertising space for some of the country’s leading historic car publications, including Classic & Sports Car and The Automobile. In 1994, he joined British Car Auctions (BCA) where he ultimately assumed the role of Operation Manager for the Classic & Historic car Division.

After six years at BCA, he moved to Bonhams where, among other auctions, he was solely responsible for the last four of the company’s much-revered Aston Martin sales, held each year at the Aston Martin factory at Newport Pagnell.

Said Marcus, "Like many people, I have been watching H&H steadily grow in stature and like the way they operate. Their record of year on year expansion excites me, as does the fact that they have succeeded in every sector of the collectors’ market they have entered to date – cars, motorcycles, bicycles, aircraft, registration plates and automobilia.

"Clearly I am party to the company’s exciting plans and I believe it is a perfect time to come aboard. I am very much looking forward to my first sale (Cheltenham, February 26/27, 2008), for which there are already some extremely interesting entries."

Marcus was educated in Surrey and he and his wife now live in the same town in which he first went to school. He lists motorsport, cycling, golf and scuba diving amongst his hobbies.

For further details of H&H sales log onto www.handh.co.uk or call 01925 730630.

-Ends-

For further press information or a high resolution version of the image below, please contact: Gordon Bruce Associates Limited. Tel: 01494 672121;

Email: marilyn.bruce@gordonbruce.com