Bonhams in Bond St: A long and winding road... to £5.3m

Beatlemania hit the West End this afternoon as both the ex-Paul McCartney Aston Martin DB5 and a Radford Mini formerly owned by Ringo Starr stormed to big money at Bonhams’ pre-Christmas sale. Away from the top of the charts, things were less good: an off-key 44% of cars sold by number in the room.

At a glance:

* Gross: £5,315,140 (£8.6m incl. post-sales)
* Percentage sold by number: 44% (61% incl. post-sales)
* Top-selling car on the day: 1964 Aston Martin DB5, ex-Paul McCartney, £1,345,500 gross, £1.2m hammer (est. £1.25m to £1.5m)
 
You couldn’t fault the presentation, the cars were spotless and the selling exhibition of Dexter Brown paintings helped to pull in the punters. Maybe the catalogue was a bit Aston-heavy, however – eight cars out of 36.

As we tipped, the for-restoration, LHD, genuine Vantage DB5 (above) did well. In the metal, it was worthy of the ‘preservation class’ treatment and sold over mid-estimate to gross £830,300.
 
The McCartney car attracted bidders in the room and on the phones and was hammered just under low estimate at £1.2m. It had been repainted in resale ‘007 DB5’ Silver Birch, a car that would sell in the high £900ks at a specialist dealer. The Beatles effect added another £400k, but purists will wince at the non-original colours inside and out and contrived registration plate.
 
Neither Ferrari supercar sold in the room.

Elsewhere, it was down to the two pre-War cars (Bentley 4½ Litre, above, for £561.5k and Alvis 4.3 Short Chassis at £505.5k) and the strong £186,300 paid for a good 1960 Jaguar XK150 S 3.8 FHC to save the day.
 
Oh, and the final lot, Ringo Starr’s Radford Mini (below), was bought by Spice Girl Geri Halliwell for £102,300 all-in. What she wanted, what she really, really wanted, no doubt for Christmas.
 
Bonhams at Bond St, 2 December 2017 – includes post-sale cars (2016)
 
Total gross cars: £8,605,939 (£3,749,090)
Number of cars not sold: 14 (9)
Number of cars withdrawn: 0 (1)
Total number of cars: 36 (27)
Number sold: 22 (18)
Percentage cars sold by number: 61% (67%)
Percentage by value average low/high estimate: 53% (41%)
Percentage of cars sold below low estimate: 36% (50%)
Percentage of cars sold not met avge of estimates: 77% (67%)
Percentage of cars sold met/exceeded top estimate: 14% (17%)
Average value of cars sold: £391,179 ()£208,283)
Average year of cars offered: 1966 (1975)
Percentage of cars offered at No Reserve: 0% (0%)
 
STOP PRESS: The following cars were sold post-sale: 1959 Bentley Continental S1 (£366,666); 2002 Ferrari 575 Maranello (£158,300); 1967 Jaguar E-type SII FHC (£87,500); 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 'Daytona' (£467,500); 1963 Aston Martin DB4 Series 4 (£327,500); 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO (£1,883,333). All prices include buyer’s premium.
 
Photos by K500