Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Bonhams
Milton Berle’s Jokes Laugh To The Bank
May 08, 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.
Read more...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.
Read more...16th Century Bottle Sells for $683,000
April 24, 2013Together, two bottles and a rare temple step accounted for almost $2m at Bonhams’ Islamic and Indian art sale in London yesterday. The bottles, as one might imagine, were very special, 16th century Iznik vessels from the Ottoman Empire. One made a new world record at $683,000, and the other sold for $460,000. Both were from the collection of a Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, who paid $765 for them back in 1919.
Read more...High Spirits At Bonhams
March 30, 2013Connoisseurs of whiskey are as passionate as wine collectors, and apparently as willing to shell out heady sums. Witness some of the offerings in Bonhams’ whiskey auction in New York next month, which features an array of limited and commemorative edition cognacs and scotches. The highlights are likely to be a 50 year-old Macallan anniversary distilled in 1928 (est. $20,000-$25,000) and a 57 year-old Macallan Lalique with a frosted crystal stopper (est. $15,000-$20,000).
Read more...World’s Best Selling Portrait Goes For $1.5m
March 20, 2013No, it’s not something from Warhol or Picasso or Dali, the best selling reproduction in the world, according to the BBC, is a portrait called, “The Chinese Girl,” by Vladimir Tretchikoff’. This week Bonhams in London sold the original oil canvas for $1.5m, almost double the original high estimate. The portrait is also sometimes called, “The Green Lady.”
Read more...Jokes & Memorabilia From Milton Berle At Bonhams
March 12, 2013Comedy great Milton Berle spent some 85 of his 94 years on earth in show business, and most of them are documented in the archive that Bonhams will be offering this spring in Los Angeles. Included is his collection of working scripts, covering his years in vaudeville, radio, television and film (est. $80,000-$100,000), as well as his voluminous private joke file (est. $10,000-$15,000), and working script from “Let’s Make Love,” the film in which he appeared with Marilyn Monroe (est. $800-$1200).
Read more...British Rarities At Motorcycle Sale
March 08, 2013All Brough motorcycles are rare, but the example that Bonhams will be offering at its Stafford sale this spring is among the rarest. It’s a 1926 SS80/100 modified with the SS80 sidevalve engine. The factory produced a very limited number, and just a few survive. After World War II its engine was replaced with an overhead valve SS100 unit. In that configuration, it won the “Rebuild of the Year” award at the Brough Superior Club’s Annual Rally in 2012. Its award at the Bonhams’ sale is expected to be rather more lucrative. The vintage bike is expected to sell for as much as $299,000.
Read more...Tiny Bronte Poem For Big Money
March 05, 2013At a time when Victorian writers like Charles Dickens were pouring out volumes, Charlotte Bronte published a total of three books in her lifetime. Yet her fame was widespread. Anything in her hand is still prized, including a poem on a tiny slip of paper written when she was 13 that Bonhams will bring to auction April 10 in London. High estimate is $67,000.
Read more...Duesenberg Leads Boca Raton Concours Auction
February 22, 2013In its day, the ultra-sleek 1930 Duesenberg Model J Torpedo Phaeton had few rivals for style, luxury, engineering or power. More expensive than a Rolls Royce or Hispano Suiza, fewer than 500 were made, making the cars’ owners members of a very exclusive club that included Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, and William Randolph Hearst. The example that Bonhams will offer tomorrow at the Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance belonged to the wife of Duesenberg’s owner, E.L. Cord and has been featured in numerous movies. Restored to show standards, it comes to the auction without an estimate, generally a sign of high expectations.
Read more...Iwo Jima Monument To Sell
February 21, 2013Iconic monuments don’t come on the market as a rule, but tomorrow is the exception. At a sale of World War II artifacts in New York, Bonhams will offer the original Iwo Jima Monument, as sculpted in Washington, D.C in June-September 1945. Felix de Weldon conceived the depiction of Marines raising the stars and stripes on Mount Suribaci, following a photograph by Joe Rosenthal. Last displayed on the hangar deck of the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum in New York, the statue comes with all sorts of related materials, including original pencil sketches for its design. To take home the 10,000 pound icon, expected to pay $1.2m-$1.8m. Plus shipping, of course.
Read more...Rare Winston Churchill Poem At Bonhams
February 08, 2013Sir Winston Churchill was of course a man of protean accomplishments: soldier, diplomat, Nobel-prize winner for literature, sometime painter, and of course the statesman who led Great Britain through World War II. He was also, it turns out, a poet, although not a prolific one. He wrote only one known poem as an adult, which Bonhams will offer in a sale of retired manuscript dealer Roy Davids’ collection this spring in London. The 40-line opus, penned in blue crayon over two pages, is expected to sell for $18,833-$23,500.
Read more...Lalique Glass Hood Ornament At Bonhams
February 04, 2013Back in the day the owner of a Citroen, Bentley, Mercedes, Packard or some other fancy car, often installed his own hood ornament. They were called “mascots.” Nobody made more iconic glass mascots than Rene Lalique. At its first Decorative Arts auction in France, Bonhams is selling a Lalique design known as “Victoire”.
Read more...Craven Heifer Portrait Sells For Fat Price
January 30, 2013She was, in fact, just a fat cow, but this “Craven Heifer” was England’s heftiest heifer ever. She weighed 4,368 pounds, was 11-feet long, stood 7-feet tall and became famous as she toured England for the yokels who paid to see her. An unknown artist did her portrait that sold at Bonhams London last night for $25,568.
Read more...Rare Pissarro Leads Bonhams Impressionist Sale
January 29, 2013Impressionist Camille Pissarro painted just two depictions of the Normandy coastline, and the whereabouts of only one is known. That would be “Falaises aux Petites-Salles,” which will be the highlight at Bonhams Impressionist and Modern Art auction on February 5th in London. The rare canvas, dominated by the sea and a sky filled with storm clouds, is expected to bring $236,000-$315,000.
Read more...Print Of A Car For $100,000?
January 22, 2013Car prices have been soaring in Phoenix this week, but in London Bonhams will offer just a print of a car that likely will sell for more than $100,000. It’s by Cyril Edward Power of a car that broke the land speed record in 1931. The owner bought the linocut print 25-years ago for $32 and hung it in his garage. Unaware of its value, he showed it to a Bonhams representative at the Grand Concours in Pebble Beach.
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