The Steeple Times

Tag: auction

  • The Sky’s the Limit

    The Sky’s the Limit

    Bonhams to offer what they call “the world’s most sought after Cadillac” at auction in Florida; it was originally made for the famed BROADMOOR Hotel resort in El Paso County, Colorado

    The BROADMOOR – a name that is unique and copyrighted due to its little raised “A” – in Colorado Springs is a vast hotel at the base of the 9,570 foot tall Cheyenne Mountain, the location of the operations base for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Built in the Italian Renaissance style and featuring 784 guest rooms, the complex has three golf courses, 18 restaurants and a fishing camp and is said to be the place where President George W. Bush decided to quit drinking after waking up with a hangover in the summer of 1986.

     

    The Sky’s the Limit – 1959 Cadillac BROADMOOR Skyview with coachwork by Superior Coach Corp. – £140,000 to £200,000 ($175,000 to $250,000 or €165,000 to €235,000 or درهم640,000 to درهم915,000) – Bonhams Amelia Island Auction on 9th March 2017 at the Fernandina Beach Club – The BROADMOOR Hotel in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado
    The Broadmoor Hotel.
    The Sky’s the Limit – 1959 Cadillac BROADMOOR Skyview with coachwork by Superior Coach Corp. – £140,000 to £200,000 ($175,000 to $250,000 or €165,000 to €235,000 or درهم640,000 to درهم915,000) – Bonhams Amelia Island Auction on 9th March 2017 at the Fernandina Beach Club – The BROADMOOR Hotel in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado
    The main hotel building.

     

    The original owners of the hotel, the Penrose family, “wanted their guests to be escorted form the airport to the hotel and to be given tours of the area’s majestic beauty in the finest of luxury” according to the Bonhams catalogue entry on a 1959 Cadillac BROADMOOR Skyview they are set to auction in March. It is the last of around 28 Cadillac limousines made for the hotel from 1937 and was built by the Superior Coach Corp., a now defunct Ohio based manufacturer of yellow school buses and hearses.

     

    251-inches long overall, equipped with power steering, power brakes, a 390 cubic inch V8 engine and dominated by a vast plexi panel ‘Skyview’ roof, the car was designed to accommodate 11 passengers. It remained in service at the hotel until the early 1970s, was then was sold to a Cadillac collector in Branford, Connecticut and subsequently underwent a full restoration at the behest of its current owner.

     

    Bonhams will sell this unusual vehicle at their Amelia Island auction on 9th March at the Fernandina Beach Club. They have set an estimate of £140,000 to £200,000 ($175,000 to $250,000 or €165,000 to €235,000 or درهم640,000 to درهم915,000) and describe it as “one of the most exclusive Cadillacs ever built”.

     

    The Sky’s the Limit – 1959 Cadillac BROADMOOR Skyview with coachwork by Superior Coach Corp. – £140,000 to £200,000 ($175,000 to $250,000 or €165,000 to €235,000 or درهم640,000 to درهم915,000) – Bonhams Amelia Island Auction on 9th March 2017 at the Fernandina Beach Club – The BROADMOOR Hotel in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, ColoradoThe Sky’s the Limit – 1959 Cadillac BROADMOOR Skyview with coachwork by Superior Coach Corp. – £140,000 to £200,000 ($175,000 to $250,000 or €165,000 to €235,000 or درهم640,000 to درهم915,000) – Bonhams Amelia Island Auction on 9th March 2017 at the Fernandina Beach Club – The BROADMOOR Hotel in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, ColoradoThe Sky’s the Limit – 1959 Cadillac BROADMOOR Skyview with coachwork by Superior Coach Corp. – £140,000 to £200,000 ($175,000 to $250,000 or €165,000 to €235,000 or درهم640,000 to درهم915,000) – Bonhams Amelia Island Auction on 9th March 2017 at the Fernandina Beach Club – The BROADMOOR Hotel in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, ColoradoThe Sky’s the Limit – 1959 Cadillac BROADMOOR Skyview with coachwork by Superior Coach Corp. – £140,000 to £200,000 ($175,000 to $250,000 or €165,000 to €235,000 or درهم640,000 to درهم915,000) – Bonhams Amelia Island Auction on 9th March 2017 at the Fernandina Beach Club – The BROADMOOR Hotel in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, ColoradoThe Sky’s the Limit – 1959 Cadillac BROADMOOR Skyview with coachwork by Superior Coach Corp. – £140,000 to £200,000 ($175,000 to $250,000 or €165,000 to €235,000 or درهم640,000 to درهم915,000) – Bonhams Amelia Island Auction on 9th March 2017 at the Fernandina Beach Club – The BROADMOOR Hotel in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, ColoradoThe Sky’s the Limit – 1959 Cadillac BROADMOOR Skyview with coachwork by Superior Coach Corp. – £140,000 to £200,000 ($175,000 to $250,000 or €165,000 to €235,000 or درهم640,000 to درهم915,000) – Bonhams Amelia Island Auction on 9th March 2017 at the Fernandina Beach Club – The BROADMOOR Hotel in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado

  • Anything Can Happen

    Anything Can Happen

    5,000 acre Irish estate where “anything can happen” for sale for £24.1 million; its current owner would prefer a buyer who’ll allow him to use it for three months a year

    Michael Jackson hid out at Luggala in County Wicklow, Ireland in 2006 for three months after being cleared of child molestation charges and other guests at this magical estate have included Francis Bacon, Orlando Bloom, Bono, John Paul Getty II, Mel Gibson, John Hurt, Mick Jagger, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Paul McCartney and Anita Pallenberg.

     

    Encompassing a plot of some 5,000 acres, Luggala (meaning: “a hollow in a ridge”) is also known as ‘Fancy Mountain’ and has been used in films including Zardoz, Braveheart and Excalibur. It is located 28 miles south-west of Dublin, was described by the singer Marianne Faithfull as “the most beautiful place in the world” and the main house there has gradually morphed into what has been called “the most decorative honeypot in Ireland”.

     

    Architecturally significant, Luggala Lodge (also known as Luggala Castle), was built in 1787 and is lauded as having “that special brand of 18th century Gothick that rejoices in little battlements, crochets, trefoil and quatrefoil windows and ogee mantelpieces, Indeed, quite like the Gothick of pastry cooks and Rockingham china”. It “boasts all the appurtenances of a grand castle but on a miniature scale” and though standing on a modest footprint, extends to some 7,438 square foot in total.

     

    In 1937, the estate was bought by the Hon. Ernest Guinness (1876 – 1949) and given to his daughter, Oonagh, on her marriage to Lord Oranmore and Browne – a peer with the rare distinction of managing to sit in the House of Lords without ever saying a single thing. It subsequently became a place where “nobody could stay away: Dublin intelligentsia, literati, painters, actors, scholars, hangers-on, toffs, punters, poets and social hang-gliders” and was even immortalised in poetry by Seamus Heaney.

     

    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s
    Current owner of Luggala, the decidedly eccentric the Hon. Dr. Garech Browne (born 1939)
    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s
    Luggala Lodge, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland
    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s
    Luggala Lodge after a fire in 1956
    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s
    Oonagh Guinness, Oonagh, Lady Oranmore and Browne (1910 – 1995)

     

    On Oonagh, Lady Oranmore and Browne’s death in 1970, the estate passed into the “custody” of her son, the Hon. Dr. Garech Browne. He has spent considerable sums restoring the house and made it a “cultural hub for Irish music, art and literature”. A co-founder of the record label Claddagh Records and instrumental in the formation of the traditional Irish folk group, The Chieftans, Browne and his Indian princess wife, Purna Devi of Morvi, added an indoor swimming pool to Luggala Lodge as well as a Gothic library for his collection of 8,000 books.

     

    Now for sale due to 77-year old Garlech Browne and his wife primarily choosing to be based in Singapore, it has been suggested that the Irish State should purchase the estate. Thus far no offer has been forthcoming and this week Jennifer O’Connell of The Irish Times even penned an article that suggested: “Opening the national chequebook is not the way to secure [Luggala’s] future”.

     

    Luggala – which comes with 7 estate lodges and cottages – is offered jointly by Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s with a guide price of £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million). The Guernsey based Guinness Trust that currently controls the actual ownership of the property has indicated that it “seeks a freehold sale and will entertain offers with both vacant possession and non-vacant possession”. Though such a deal seems as unlikely as that that Christian de Guigné IV proposed of his £81 million ($100 million, €94 million or درهم367 million) estate at Hillsborough in California, at the mythical delight that is Luggala, anything could indeed happen.

     

    Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’sAnything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’sAnything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’sAnything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s Anything Can Happen – Luggala, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, Ireland –For sale for £24.1 million ($30.1 million, €28 million or درهم110.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty and Crawford’s

  • A Performing Peugeot

    A Performing Peugeot

    Best performing classic car in terms of value gain revealed; you’ll be surprised at the result

     

    We’ve featured several Peugeot 205s that have sold at auctions at prices as high as £156,800 and now the latest Haggerty Classic Index has revealed that the greatest classic car value gain this year has been on the 205 GTi.

     

    This year, Peugeot 205s have risen 28.5% to an average value of £11,275 and with an immaculate yet ordinary one we featured in July having gone for £30,938 at auction, this ‘hot hatch’ is becoming a ‘must have’ for car collectors.

     

    As examples, we select first a red 1993 1.9-litre CTi convertible. It is for sale for £7,250 ($9,100 or €8,600 or درهم‎‎33,500) through MSP Motors in Runcorn, Cheshire and has 69,000 miles on the clock. They term it “a great example of a future classic, a great investment”.

     

    Our second choice is also presented in red and is a 1989 1.6-litre GTi. It has 69,119 miles on the clock, has an electric glass sunroof and is for sale through AMS Vehicles of Stokesley, North Yorkshire. They describe it as “a desirable vehicle at a sensible price” and offer it for £11,000 ($13,800 or €13,100 or درهم‎‎50,800).

     

    Of the survey itself, Angus Forsyth, managing director of Hagerty remarked:

     

    “We’ve seen confidence return to the classic car market in the last few months of 2016 after a summer of uncertainty, and we believe the Q3 results were a reflection on people holding back following the initial uncertainty of the Brexit vote in June”.

     

    “However, now the financial markets have settled, people have bought into the car market albeit a few months later than they might have planned. Whether people still feel classics make good investments, or they just want to put their money into something fun, they are still definitely buying, and the values of the best classics are still on the rise”.

     

    A Performing Peugeot – Best performing classic car in terms of value gain revealed; you’ll be surprised at the result – Peugeot 205 GTi CTiA Performing Peugeot – Best performing classic car in terms of value gain revealed; you’ll be surprised at the result – Peugeot 205 GTi CTiA Performing Peugeot – Best performing classic car in terms of value gain revealed; you’ll be surprised at the result – Peugeot 205 GTi CTi

  • Kind Hearts and Box Ejectors

    Kind Hearts and Box Ejectors

    William Evans 12-bore commissioned by Sir Alec Guinness in 1959 to be auctioned; it cost just £95 new

     

    Sir Alec Guinness (1914 – 2000) was undoubtedly one of Britain’s finest ever actors. He is remembered for playing eight characters in Kind Hearts and Coronets in 1949 and also appeared in The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago.

     

    In 1959, the screen legend was knighted and in the year, he commissioned St James’s Street gun makers William Evans to make a 12-bore boxlock ejector gun for his son, Matthew. He paid £95.18.6 (the equivalent of £1,994, $2,528 or €2,390 or درهم‎‎9,284 today) for it and now that gun is to be sold by Holts on 8th December in London.

     

    Of the gun, Alastair Phillips of William Evans commented:

     

    “I can only imagine the excitement in the gunroom the day that Sir Alec Guinness walked in. We have had many well known names pass through our door, but I would have definitely liked to have met Sir Alec, a legendary film actor and knighted Brit. It is wonderful to know that he embraced and enjoyed what the British countryside has to offer, and we are excited we can now share the story of his passion with the public”.

     

    An estimate of £3,000 to £5,000 ($3,800 to $6,400 or €3,600 to €6,000 or درهم‎‎14,000 to درهم23,400‎‎) has been set and Matthew Guinness’ initials remain engraved on the gun’s oval.

     

    Kind Hearts and Boxlock Ejectors – William Evans 12-bore commissioned by Sir Alec Guinness in 1959 to be auctioned on 8th December 2016 by Holts Auctioneers in London – estimate of £3,000 to £5,000 ($3,800 to $6,400 or €3,600 to €6,000 or درهم‎‎14,000 to درهم23,400‎‎) Kind Hearts and Boxlock Ejectors – William Evans 12-bore commissioned by Sir Alec Guinness in 1959 to be auctioned on 8th December 2016 by Holts Auctioneers in London – estimate of £3,000 to £5,000 ($3,800 to $6,400 or €3,600 to €6,000 or درهم‎‎14,000 to درهم23,400‎‎) Kind Hearts and Boxlock Ejectors – William Evans 12-bore commissioned by Sir Alec Guinness in 1959 to be auctioned on 8th December 2016 by Holts Auctioneers in London – estimate of £3,000 to £5,000 ($3,800 to $6,400 or €3,600 to €6,000 or درهم‎‎14,000 to درهم23,400‎‎)

  • Boxing Above Its Weight?

    Boxing Above Its Weight?

    Will a Ferrari once owned by Sir Henry Cooper achieve 126% more than it did a year ago?

     

    Last November, Silverstone Auctions sold a 1973 Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2 that was at one time owned by the legendary boxer Sir Henry Cooper OBE. After featuring in The Steeple Times, it fetched just £30,938 ($39,125 or €36,746 or درهم‎‎143,684) on an estimate of £40,000 to £45,000 ($50,600 to $56,900 or €47,500 to €53,500 or درهم‎‎185,800 to درهم‎‎209,000) but, now, just a year later, its purchaser is trying to sell it on again for a figure – if its top estimate is achieved – that is 126% higher.

     

    Offered this time by Coys at their ‘True Greats’ auction on Monday 5th December in London, the Rosso Corsa with complementing biscuit hide car comes with new carpets, 60,000 miles on the clock, a cherished plate ‘CCZ 365’ and a set of boxing gloves signed by the heavyweight.

     

    Will it box above its weight and achieve £55,000 to £70,000 ($69,500 to $88,500 or €65,300 to €83,100 or درهم‎‎255,400 to درهم‎‎325,100)? We’d be surprised but stranger things have happened.

     

    Boxing above its weight? Ex Sir Henry Cooper OBE 1973 Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2 for sale for 126% more than it sold for in 2015 – Coys ‘True Greats’ sale, London, Monday 5th December 2016 – £55,000 to £70,000 ($69,500 to $88,500 or €65,300 to €83,100 or درهم‎‎255,400 to درهم‎‎325,100)Boxing above its weight? Ex Sir Henry Cooper OBE 1973 Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2 for sale for 126% more than it sold for in 2015 – Coys ‘True Greats’ sale, London, Monday 5th December 2016 – £55,000 to £70,000 ($69,500 to $88,500 or €65,300 to €83,100 or درهم‎‎255,400 to درهم‎‎325,100)Boxing above its weight? Ex Sir Henry Cooper OBE 1973 Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2 for sale for 126% more than it sold for in 2015 – Coys ‘True Greats’ sale, London, Monday 5th December 2016 – £55,000 to £70,000 ($69,500 to $88,500 or €65,300 to €83,100 or درهم‎‎255,400 to درهم‎‎325,100)

  • Thatcher’s Jag

    Thatcher’s Jag

    Armoured Jaguar that served as Margaret Thatcher’s last car – and which was also used by David Cameron – sells at auction

    Offered with an estimate of £15,000 to £20,000 ($19,800 to $26,400 or €17,600 to €23,600), an armoured Jaguar XJ8 used by Margaret Thatcher sold at auction yesterday for £37,500 ($49,900 or €44,200).

    The 2006 long wheelbase saloon, the last official vehicle allocated to the late Baroness Thatcher by The Government Car Service, a division of the Department for Transport, was paid for by HM Treasury and funds raised from its sale will go back to the department.

    Christie’s South Kensington sold the vehicle as part of their annual ‘Out of the Ordinary’ sale. It was part of a collection owned by a Jersey based collector named David Gainsborough Roberts and featured armoured enhancement including titanium roof, ballistic steel armouring, under-floor Kevlar protection, bullet-resistant borosilicate glazing and tyres with run flat capability. It came with a certificate of authenticity signed by the Secretary of State, Patrick McLoughlin and has a gross weight of 3,200 kg.

    Of the sale, Gainsborough Roberts remarked:

    “After collecting for over 40 years the time has finally arrived to share my collection with the world”.

    “I hope my insatiable appetite for the curious, the famous and the infamous will inspire a new generation of custodians”.

    Thatcher’s Jaguar – Ex-Baroness Thatcher 2006 Jaguar XJ8 armoured saloon – Margaret Thatcher – Christie’s South Kensington Out of the Ordinary sale – 14th September 2016 – Also used by David Cameron
    The car outside 10 Downing Street

    Thatcher’s Jaguar – Ex-Baroness Thatcher 2006 Jaguar XJ8 armoured saloon – Margaret Thatcher – Christie’s South Kensington Out of the Ordinary sale – 14th September 2016 – Also used by David Cameron
    The interior

    Thatcher’s Jaguar – Ex-Baroness Thatcher 2006 Jaguar XJ8 armoured saloon – Margaret Thatcher – Christie’s South Kensington Out of the Ordinary sale – 14th September 2016 – Also used by David Cameron
    Denis and Margaret Thatcher leaving Downing Street for the last time after she stood down as Prime Minister in another Jaguar

    Thatcher’s Jaguar – Ex-Baroness Thatcher 2006 Jaguar XJ8 armoured saloon – Margaret Thatcher – Christie’s South Kensington Out of the Ordinary sale – 14th September 2016 – Also used by David Cameron
    David Cameron in the car

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    Likeness of Hitler sells for £11.9 million in New York
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  • The wicker car

    The wicker car

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