Bonhams’ biggest ever London to Brighton sale was also the best yet, with over £1-million worth of veteran cars changing hands. Nine of the ten cars found new owners at the sale on Friday 2 November 2007 with all achieving very strong prices. The 1903 Cadillac Model A Two Seater Runabout left the saleroom on Friday evening to complete the London to Brighton Run in the hands of its new owner on Sunday.

The 1904 Talbot Type CT2K 9/11hp Twin Cylinder Rear Entrance Tonneau made top price of £172,000 (estimate £120,000 – 140,000). This remarkable LBVCR-eligible car belonged to one family for 80 years of its life and completed its first London to Brighton Run in 1991 following a restoration undertaken at the workshop of the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu.

Four other cars in the sale sold for more than £100,000:

1903 Panhard-Levassor Type A 7hp Twin-cylinder - sold for £150,000 (estimate £120,000 – 140,000) and will go into a major British collection.
1902 Argyll 8hp Rear Entrance Tonneau – sold for £144,500 (double the estimate of £60,000 – 80,000) to an English collector of Scottish cars, after keen interest from an Irish underbidder.
1904 James & Browne 9hp Twin Cylinder Rear Entrance Tonneau – sold £111,500 (estimate £80,000 – 100,000)
1899 Marshall 5hp Two Seater Phaeton – sold £102,700 (estimate £80,000 – 100,000). The oldest veteran in the sale sold to a private collector from Yorkshire - where the car originally came from.

This year’s sale included a larger memorabilia section, with over 200 lots of motoring related accessories, art, literature badges and mascots. Highlights included a beautiful Edwardian child’s pedal car c.1905 with working steering and handbrake which sold for £4,140. The very rare accessories and spares were much in demand with many items selling for many times their pre-sale estimates, including a brass cased Smiths double instrument box (estimate £600 – 800) which fetched £4,140. The ‘Road to Brighton’, a painting dated 1903 by George Loraine Stampa, depicting the Mad Hatter and the March Hare aboard a veteran motor car sold for three times its estimate - £3,680.

Tim Schofield, Head of the UK Motoring Department, who completed Sunday’s Run in a 1902 Panhard Levassor, said:

“The Bonhams sale is the opening event for the London to Brighton Run and this year, as always, the saleroom was packed with collectors and enthusiasts from around the world. We are delighted with the prices achieved at this year’s sale, which all exceeded expectations, demonstrating a real depth of bidding.”

Those collectors who were competing in Sunday’s Run – the world’s longest-running motoring rally - stayed on after the auction for an evening reception hosted by Bonhams.

Demonstrating a thorough and ‘hands-on’ understanding of the veteran car market, eight members of the Bonhams’ team successfully participated in this year’s event.

Posted: 11|12|07 at 10:43 am. Filed under: Auction News.