Although the top seller at Bonhams vintage automobile auction in Scottsdale, Arizona was a $667,000 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet, much of the attention at the event went to another car, a 1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom 1, once owned by Marlene Dietrich. It sped to $524,000, well above its $300,000-$400,000 estimate.Another favorite was a 1966 Aston Martin DB6 Vantage Saloon with fewer than 7,000 miles, some of them recorded by former owner Bing Crosby. The car crooned a price of $298,000.
$524,000 For Marlene Dietrich’s Rolls
January 23, 2012
Aston Martin Sells For Record $4.95m
May 20, 2013Until this past weekend, the record for an Aston Martin at auction was the $4.6m paid for a DB5 with celebrity credentials, having seen use in “Goldfinger.” That price was eclipsed on Saturday, when a factory-restored 1960 DB4GT “Jet” Coupé sold for $4.95m at a Bonhams auction in the UK. Offered for the first time in 30 years, the unique car — the only GT with body by Bertone — has won various Concours d’Elegance awards, including ‘Best In Show’ at the Villa d’Este and 1st in the Italian Coachworks Class at Pebble Beach.
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Milton Berle’s Jokes Laugh To The Bank
May 8, 2013For $158,000 a bidder got Milton Berle’s library, including books and boxes of bound scripts and personal correspondence, but he didn’t get the comedian’s thousands of one-liners and jokes carefully catalogued over the decades. That file went for another $65,000 at Bonham’s Entertainment auction this week.
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1952 Vincent Black Shadow Rules Field At Bonhams
April 29, 2013Mechanical failures prevented a specially equipped Vincent Black Shadow from setting a new 24-hour speed record in 1952 at Monthéry in France, the race for which it had been created. Nothing stood in the restored ex-works bike’s way, however, at Bonhams International Motorcycle sale at Staffordshire, where it sold yesterday for $175,860. Another bike posting a solid result was a 1914 Indian Model F, formerly owned by screen icon Steve McQueen. A European telephone bidder claimed it forjust under $50,000, well above its $43,000 high estimate.
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Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
