US 2016 Fall Auctions: RM at Hershey, Bonhams at the Simeone Museum

Welcome to the world of ‘flivvers’, ‘buckboards’ and ‘underslungs’. The autumn sales held in north-eastern America are a world far removed from today's focus on modern supercars.

Like the chocolate that bears the Hershey name, the selection of cars will appeal more to the local market than an international audience. That said, pre-War and classic American cars from the 40s and 50s still have their fans. Over the years, thanks to catalogues packed with entries at No Reserve, RM (Hershey) and Bonhams (Simeone Automotive Foundation Museum) have sold many thousands of cars to a generation of enthusiasts more familiar with ‘1911’ than ‘911’.

At a glance:

• RM to hold two-day sale of 132-lot catalogue. Possible $16.5m gross (2015: $14.9m), 61% offered at No Reserve
• Bonhams offers 52 cars. Potential $2.2m gross (2015: $2.7m), 62% No Reserve
• RM’s 1930 Duesenberg Model J Dual-Cowl Phaeton by Murphy ($1.6m to $2m, pictured top, first owned by ‘The Mayonnaise King’) headlines the Fall Week auctions
• Lonely 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster at RM for $900k to $1.2m
• Average age of cars offered: RM 1937, Bonhams 1944

Bonhams kicks off proceedings in Philadelphia on 3 October with a sale of “a grouping of cars charting the course of automotive history from the dawn of the motoring age to the present era”. In keeping with the ethos of the Simeone Automotive Foundation Museum, a feature of the event is originality – hence the title ‘Preserving the Automobile’. The Bond St house has cut its offering back from 76 cars to 52 this year, ranging in age from an 1899 Locomobile to a pair of late-1970s Mercedes.   

Later in the week – 6-7 October – RM will offer a 300+ page catalogue of classics at Hershey Lodge, Pennsylvania, the sale coinciding with the Antique Automobile Club of America’s Eastern Division National Fall Meet.

It wasn’t so long ago that, with the addition of a top-tier Ferrari or two, much of the catalogue would have featured in an Amelia Island or even Monterey-week sale. RM hasn’t stinted on the production values, either – it’s a lavish tome every bit as good as its other offerings. At a possible $15m+ gross, so it should be.

The entries vary from dawn of motoring, ‘Laurel & Hardy’ flivvers, through 1930s sharecroppers’ pick-ups and impossibly expensive luxury cars of 1930s movie stars and Wall St financiers, to the post-War American dream of the 1950s and 1960s.

With values of significant, low-production 1930s American models holding their own compared with more capricious sectors, we’ll be interested to see how the headlining ‘Duesie’ and 1935 Auburn Eight Supercharged Speedster ($900k to $1.2m) fare – but we doubt whether many Silicon Valley billionaires will put down their skinny lattes to look at the catalogues, let alone make the trip from west to east.

Photos by the auction houses