The purses ere empty but still sold for tens of thousands of dollars at Bonham’s auction in London last week where 64 Hermés handbags went for a total of $888,875. Highest price was paid for a 2008 Jane Birkin model that sold for $48,000. Bonham’s high estimate for it going into the sale was $15,000.Last year a diamond studded version of the Birkin sold at auction for $203,000. Jane Birkin was an English actress who had a chance meeting with Jean-Louis Dumas, the Hermés chairman. She complained it was hard to find a weekend leather bag. Hermés designed one only made it out of crocodile. Another model named after Grace Kelly, known simply as “the Kelly” went for $27,500.
64 Hermés Handbags Sell For $888,875
May 21, 2012
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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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.
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Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
