‘Brand new’ 1994 Jaguar XJS V12 convertible with just 153 miles on the clock to be sold for the same price as when it was actually ‘brand new’ 32-years ago
In 1994, nineteen years after the first Jaguar XJ-S – later changed to ‘XJS’ – went on sale, “the XJS remained a handsome and contemporary car, especially in convertible form.” Of a car lauded as a “comfortable grand tourer,” Jaguar Heritage continued: “Customers obviously thought so… An incredible 4,633 4.0-litre convertibles were sold.” A total of 115,413 units of the vehicle were made between 1975 and 1996 of which 30,946 topless XJS were produced between 1988 and 1996.
Priced new at a base of around £46,000 ($58,000, €53,000 or درهم213,000) then – or the equivalent of around £91,000 ($115,000, €106,000 or درهم421,000) now, according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator – when ‘brand new’ in 1994, an example most unusual is to be sold at auction next month.
The odometer read 152 miles when photographed, but the catalogue listing states 153 miles. On this basis, the car has averaged an astonishing 4.8 miles per year in its life to date; at a speed of 60 miles per hour, one could travel 4.8 miles in just under 5 minutes.In June 2018, ‘ThisIsMoney.co.uk’ reported that a 1990 Jaguar XJS V12 HE coupé with just 840 miles on the clock was being offered at auction with an estimate of £35,000 to £40,000. Rob Hull for the paper shared: “So, you might assume it is worth a fair whack by today’s standards? And you’d be right, the sale price is tipped to hit £40,000. But once you adjust for inflation it’s only valued at half the price the first owner would have paid for it. It highlights that if you do the sums and adjust for inflation, stashing a car away is not always a sure fire investment… Even allowing for it selling at the top end of the £40,000 estimate, with the impact of inflation taken into account this untouched gem has halved in value.” The car, registration G179 XAE, was eventually hammered down by Silverstone Auctions – now known as Iconic Auctioneers – for £42,188.
The aforementioned – chassis number SAJJNADW3EN179778 and engine 314000000395 – was originally commissioned by the Scottish Business Achievement Award Trust, but according to auctioneers Bonhams, “apparently the deal fell through and the car was never delivered or registered.” It has since belonged to “two major collections where it has been on museum display.”
Astoundingly, the Regency red coloured with barley hide, Bordeaux carpets and black hood vehicle – which has been with the current owner since 2014 – has covered delivery mileage only and its odometer reads just 153 miles. It has only been driven when moved between secure storage facilities and is “as new” other than “some minor paintwork retouching to the front panels.”
Bonhams will sell what is considered “a thoroughly appreciated classic” by Classics World at their Goodwood Members’ Meeting sale on 14th April. They offer it with a staggering estimate of £80,000 to £100,000 ($101,000 to $126,000, €93,000 to €117,000 or درهم370,000 to درهم463,000) and as Jaguar Heritage conclude of the model: “Drive to a party in an XJS convertible and you’d arrive in more ways than one. That is still the case;” though in the case of this particular XJS you’d be the first to drive it anywhere glamorous.
Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples and watch his current nightly show on YouTube at 8.30pm daily.
The interior is reflective of the model being what has been described as “a personification of 1980s excess” and it being “a favourite of the ‘gin and Jag’ set.” These after all were cars that appeared in ritzy series such as ‘Howards’ Way’ and ‘Lovejoy’ and which were driven primarily by glitzy ladies such as Jan Howard and Lady Jane Felsham.The engine of the vehicle is clearly “as new” and described as “running and driving” but “will require recommissioning before extended use.” The XJS has a current MOT, but no registration document.An image of an immaculate wheel illustrates how the convertible offered is well and truly in a condition just as when it left the factory.The car’s tool kit has clearly never been used.A view of the example offered from the rear. Of it, Bonhams remark: “The ultimate and most expensive Jaguar of its era, the V12-engined XJS Convertible nevertheless represented exceptional value for money and, given its proud pedigree, peerless road manners and exceptional specification, is no less of a bargain today.”The front of the vehicle. It is described by Bonhams as “in effectively ‘as new’ condition throughout apart from some minor paintwork retouching to the front panels.”
In cultivating a new variety of snowdrop Joe Sharman – known to many as ‘Mr Snowdrop’ – has brought joy to ‘galanthophiles’ everywhere and made himself £1,850 from just one bulb also; amusingly there’s even a variety named ‘John’s Y-Fronts’
It’s always great to improve one’s grasp of etymology and this morning I learnt about a word that describes a charmingly endearing collection of people. That word? Galanthophile.
A noun of 19th century origin that takes the snowdropgalanthus’s taxonomic name from the Greek gala, galkt ‘milk’ and antho- ‘flower,’ those that so enthusiastically collect these “magical and really special” bell-shaped flowers are known as galanthophiles.
The official flower for January birthdays and brought to Britain by the Romans, the “milk flower of the snow” – as it is sometimes described – is said to symbolise hope, purity, innocence and sympathy. It is the first flower to bloom at the end of winter and though Victorians associated it with death and bad luck, on Saturday, The Guardian’s Steven Morris charmingly reported on “hordes of galanthophiles” descending on Buckland Monachorum on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon this week to “take in the sight of a beloved flower that this time of year provides a vivid reminder than warmer, cheerier seasons are ahead.”
Grown by Cottenham, Cambridgeshire plantsman Joe Sharman (AKA ‘Mr Snowdrop’) of the Monksilver Nursery, ‘Golden Tears’ received 55 bids and finally hammered down to a buyer “unidentified.” It was listed as:
“A narrow-flowered yellow pterugiform with a very large mark and bright yellow ovary. Very beautiful and distinct. Quite different from Golden Fleece. Exceptionally vigorous. 25cm. The result of a deliberate cross by me using the same parents that created Golden Fleece. First time sold by us on eBay only named 2 weeks ago. Only one for the season.”
In 2015, in an interview with The Guardian – clearly the paper with the most enthusiasm for snowdrops on the planet – Joe Sharman concluded:
“They come up early in the year when nothing else is growing, so if you have the kind of brain that needs lots of things to think about, you focus in.”
“They seem to be almost infinitely variable. You collect the 10 you recognise, then you realise that you can recognise 20 and it just goes from there. I don’t think there is another group of plants quite like it.”
Pictured top – Joe Sharman (right) and the now famous £1,850 flower he has spent years cultivating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQv7kHDHb5E
Britain’s leading botanist by far Dr Shirley Sherwood OBE – the widow of the late buccaneering businessman and one-time owner of hotels including the Cipriani in Venice and the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service also James Sherwood – is a noted enthusiast on the subject of snowdrops. In December 2021, this delightful lady took to YouTube to discuss a painting of the flowers by Susan Ogilvy and commented: “I love snowdrops. I have lots in my garden and we have a very particularly version of the snowdrop. Whole groups of people, clubs of people who like snowdrops and grow every single kind they can think of. I think there are many, many varieties and of course there are wild snowdrops too.” Of her painting, she endearingly declared: “This is a lovely painting and it justifiably is one of the favourite ones in my collection.”Speaking to the ‘Daily Mail’ yesterday, gardening writer Val Bourne remarked of the bulb sold of eBay: “[It’ll] go under the knife. They’ll cut it into 20 pieces and start selling individual plants. They’ll get their money back in three or four years. It’s a mad hobby.” Going further previously, Mr Sharman commented: “Security is a big problem. I know people who have opened their gardens and had everything stolen. I don’t open my garden or nursery. But stealing snowdrops is like stealing a Van Gogh. If it’s rare, all the galanthophiles will know who propagated it and where it was stolen from.” In 2019, two men were arrested for stealing 13,000 bulbs from the Walsingham Estate in Norfolk and amongst famous collectors are Lord and Lady Heseltine. The former Deputy Prime Minister under John Major has accumulated over 700 varieties at Thenford House in Northamptoshire in his “garden of major importance.” Whether they have the variety named ‘John’s Y-Fronts’ is unknown.Anyone who picks an endemic variety of the plant in the national park will be fined £5,954 ($8,070, €7,113 or درهم29,600, 110,000 Turkish Lira) according to a report published in the ‘Hurriyet Daily News’ in February 2022. The fine has risen from £4,330 ($5,870, €5,174 or درهم21,600, 110,000 Turkish Lira) last year and of why, Halil Ernalçacı, the head of Mount Spil Nature Park, told the paper: “Our visitors should be cautious when they walk in the park. They should look for where they take their steps.”Artist, botanist and horticulturist Edward Augustus Bowles (1865 – 1954) of Myddleton House, Enfield, London was a well known “snowdrop enthusiast.” In January 2013, the blog ‘Plant Heritage’ delved into his connections to the flower after visiting a snowdrop sale at his former home.
Types of Snowdrops
Snowdrops bloom from September through to March and peak in January and February. Amongst the many types – there are in excess of 1,700 in the collection of Joe Sharman alone – are:
Galanthus ‘Dionysus’
Named after the god of the grape harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit.
Galanthus ‘Elwesii”
Named after H. J. Elwes, an English plant collector who found the original plants in Turkey. Its leaves “neatly fold inside the other” and its “flowers have two green spots on the inner petals, which sometimes fuse together.”
Galanthus ‘Fly Fishing’
Features a “long, slender pedicel (stalk) that looks like a fishing rod.”
Galanthus ‘Golden Fleece’
Joe Sharman spent 18 years developing this and sold a bulb of this variety for £1,390 ($1,884, €1,661 or درهم6,920).
Galanthus ‘Golden Tears’
A new variety and record breaker in terms of the £1,850 ($2,508, €2,210 or درهم9,210) price Joe Sharman sold it for, this variety features a “narrow-flowered yellow pterugiform with a very large mark and bright yellow ovary” and is noted as “very beautiful and distinct” and “exceptionally vigorous.”
Galanthus ‘Ivy Cottage Corporal’
“Features two green Vs resembling a corporal’s stripes.”
Galanthusnivalis ‘Norfolk Blonde’
Rather like a blonde bimbo, this snowdrop features “pale leaves and pale yellow flowers” and has a “long ovary” also.
Galanthus ‘Ophelia’
Named after Shakespeare’s tragic young noblewoman of Denmark who ends up in a state of madness that ultimately leads to her drowning.
Galanthus ‘Nothing Special’
Modestly named though lauded by Joe Sharman as “one of the best forms I have selected,” this “very clean white and wonderfully scented” snowdrop is supposedly “vigorous” also.
Galanthus ‘Primrose Warburg’
Described as a “dainty snowdrop with yellowish leaves” and named after the “legendary galanthophile Primrose Warburg.”
Galanthus ‘Trumps’
Described as having “an elegant flaring pagoda shape” and thankfully has nothing to do with the 45th POTUS of the same name.
Galanthus ‘Wendy’s Gold’
Described as “far more vigorous than [other] yellows.”
Galanthus ‘John’s Y-Fronts’
This variant is described as “small, late, neat, single with a very clearly Y-shaped mark on inner.” It has grey leaves. Could it’s name have been inspired by the former British Prime Minister John Major’s “underpant episode” with Edwina Currie where he allegedly tucked his shirt into his allegedly grey Y-fronts?
Reaction of “pooterish residents” of Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire to community library becoming a “book sexchange” is laughable and condemned as “righteous indignation”
‘Book Sexchange’ scandal hits Hants – You’d have thought any populous would be grateful, especially in times of lockup boredom, for a book exchange, but the raucous residents of Hurstbourne Tarrant in Hampshire (population 851) most certainly are not after erotic fiction was discovered in their phone box library.
Echoing the uproar that followed our having made bookseller Olivia Clements a ‘Heroine of the Hour’ in February after she installed a free community library box in her garden in Exeter, a spokesman for the local council complained: “We love our phone box library but we don’t love salacious adult literature being left in there… Please find another outlet for your collection.”
Speaking to The Sun, a local councillor, Kirsty North, furiously exclaimed: “This certainly wasn’t what I had in mind when the village bought the kiosk,” whilst an angry parish council clerk named Miriam Edwards added:
“A lot of people don’t find this funny. We don’t want this made into some sort of laughing stock and a sideshow when the underlying issue is actually very important. We don’t want somebody acting like it’s OK to put porn in a public phone box.”
Analysed further by Daniel Johnson in The Article yesterday also in an article titled: “The great British telephone box library scandal,” the “righteous indignation” and of the “pooterish” South Downs National Park residents about “smutty paperbacks in a phone box” was deservedly condemned. He quite rightly observed:
“Is it possible that the good people of Hurstbourne Tarrant are stuck in a 1950s time warp, perhaps connected with their telephone kiosk library? (Where is Doctor Who when you need her?) Has news of the Lady Chatterley trial and the abolition of censorship yet to reach this corner of the South Downs National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty and seemingly of unnatural prudishness?”
“The point about libraries – even very, very small ones – is that they almost always contain books that are ‘inappropriate’ for somebody. But the moral jeopardy of letting children roam fancy-free among the bookcases is far outweighed by the value of serendipity – the magical moment when a child discovers the joy of reading for him or herself.”
“To treat adult literature as dangerous is to infantilise young readers – and counter-productive, too. Do parents and teachers worry about child protection every time boys and girls set foot in the local public library, lest they stray into the ‘grown-up’ sections? In reality, most are more likely to be glad that the kids are reading books at all, rather than spending their leisure looking at who-knows-what online. Their innocence is at incomparably greater risk from the smartphones they all have.”
In March 2013, we reported that the number of BT telephone boxes in the UK had declined from 92,000 to just 51,500 in 2012. Since then many more have been removed and in their place a book exchange would surely be a good thing for any community – unless, of course, you are a doddering denizen of Hurstbourne Tarrant, of course.
Bonkers Book Sexchange Saga 2021 – A unnamed less prudish resident of Hurstbourne Tarrant told ‘The Sun’: “I have heard that there are some salacious books – I’m number 20 in the queue.” The paper added: “One title is ‘Hot Blooded’ by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié. The blurb reveals that one character is ‘struggling to resist her own animal urges’.”Bonkers Book Sexchange Saga 2021 – When we featured the generous act of Olivia Clements in setting up a community library in her garden in Exeter in February, a tedious twerp named Mark Wicks took to Twitter and complained that it was “a really middle class thing to do with no real understanding of collection management or the role of libraries as a place maker in the local community.” We’d like to know what good Mr Wicks has ever done for anybody and what he has to say about Hurstbourne Tarrant’s ‘book sexchange’ scandal also.
In spite of just having 675 followers, a tweet by Clements on Friday touched the hearts of thousands. In it, she announced:
“I made a community library! If you’re in the Bishopston area of Bristol please feel free to visit, borrow, swap out, and enjoy some much needed escapism.”
The response to the missive was extraordinary and aside from 1,500 retweets and 13,500 likes, thoughtful and plainly kind Clements received over 330 comments including ones from Professor Michelle Ryan who’d set up a ‘free library’ just outside of Exeter.
Whilst one Mark Wicks nastily mocked this as “a really middle class thing to do with no real understanding of collection management or the role of libraries as a place maker in the local community,” unsurprisingly most celebrated this “great individual effort” in the spirit in was plainly intended.
For those living in Bristol, Olivia Clements’ book exchange can be found in Elton Road, Bishopston, BS7 and those wishing to donate books should contact her directly on Twitter.
Doing Good During Lockup – Olivia Clements shared on Twitter that she’d created a community library in the Bishopston area of Bristol on 5th February and already 13,400 pressed ‘love’ and 1,500 shared news of her generous gesture.Doing Good During Lockup – On Saturday, Clements tweeted again with an image of the well-stocked ‘The Little Library’ and remarked: “Today’s donations for The Little Library! You guys have great taste in books.”
Five Sensible Souls of Lockup-Lockdown
Doing Good During Lockup – In March 2020, we featured the story of a “lovely gesture” by an anonymous Good Samaritan in Denchworth, Oxfordshire. Said individual paid for the local pub, The Fox, to provide fish and chips once per week for the 171 residents during the first lockdown.Doing Good During Lockup – In March 2020, Dame Vera Lynn (20th March 1917 – 18th June 2020) told Britons to “weather the storm” of the coronavirus crisis by “pulling together.” She very correctly added: “Keep calm and follow sensible advice… Remain positive and look after each other.”Doing Good During Lockup – In April 2020, we reported on how the 29-year-old Duke of Westminster had given £12.5 million to “provide support to NHS staff, key workers and their children and families” during the first lockdown. He remarked: ““On behalf of my family and everyone at the Grosvenor Estate, I want to say a huge thank you to all our amazing NHS staff and everyone providing critical frontline services. We are all humbled and incredibly grateful that you are working tirelessly to keep us safe and keep the country functioning.”Doing Good During Lockup – The ‘Queen of Gorbals Gobbledygook’ Lorraine Kelly OBE quite sensibly told obese people to slim to avoid death by coronavirus in May 2020. Whilst some would suggest this cruel, the daytime presenter remarked: “This awful coronavirus is far deadlier to those who are overweight… This is not about going on a stupid faddy diet. It’s all about a lifestyle change and doing exercise you enjoy. My advice, which is hard-earned over the years, is not to have too much unhealthy food in the house, especially right now in lockdown when it’s so easy to sit watching TV while guzzling whole packets of biscuits. If you don’t buy the junk, you won’t be able to gorge on it. That’s not to say you can’t have a treat. You can. Just don’t eat a whole plus-sized bag of Maltesers or only leave a few Hobnobs in the biscuit tin.”Doing Good During Lockup – Captain Sir Tom Moore (30th April 1920 – 2nd February 2021) undoubtedly became the figurehead of fundraising and positivity from the first lockdown onwards. Aside from raising well over £30 million, his message of “tomorrow will be a good day” inspired millions. Here he is pictured in Barbados being serenaded by singer Melinda Hughes.
Auctioneers Christie’s sought to sell five waste bins for £230; they ultimately went for the astounding sum of just under £34,000
Whilst most people would rubbish around a few pounds for a waste bin to put the junk mail we mentioned on Friday, a set of five sold for £33,900 ($43,750, €37,300 or درهم160,700) in a Christie’s auction last week.
Offered with an estimate of £230 to £390 ($300 to $500, €260 to €430 or درهم1,100 to درهم1,800) to reflect that they had been supplied by the late French interior designer Henri Samuel – a man “hailed by Architectural Digest as a ‘supreme master of progressive historicism’” – the 20th century faux wood grain and cream painted bins were supplied with Italian marbelised paper linings.
Plainly another deciding factor for the purchaser of these very expensive rubbish containers was their past ownership. The bins had previously been owned by the late American socialite and philanthropist Jayne Wrightsman.
The collection of Jayne Wrightsman (1919 – 2019) sold for a total of £930,000 ($1.2 million, €1 million or درهم4.4 million) at Christie’s. Her waste baskets were the top performing lot in the sale.
An invitation from businesswoman Heather Bird Tchenguiz to a socially distanced ‘by appointment’ exhibition of the works of William Cookson in Knightsbridge
Today’s updated COVID restrictions will sadly result in the curtailing of many activities for the next six months, but in Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, London, SW3 artist William Cookson and salon-gallery owner Heather Bird Tchenguiz are opening an appropriately socially distanced ‘by appointment only exhibition’ this evening.
Limiting the number of guests to a maximum of six in total at any one time and offering hand sanitisation and masks to all attending, interested collectors will be able to view abstract works of art in complete safety whilst enjoying mindfully served refreshments. No walk-in visitors will be allowed access.
Great to see an artist coming up with a socially distanced way of doing an exhibition right now. Looking forward to joining limited numbers of you at Heather Bird’s Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, SW3 gallery to view William Cookson’s works. Here’s a video intro to what’s to come pic.twitter.com/uuiJTfAMEX
Prior to the exhibition commencing Harrow School and Charles Cecil Studios trained Cookson briefly introduced his works in a video that has since been uploaded to Twitter.
Now, today, as the exhibition commences, Bird Tchenguiz comments: “We all need a little joy right now and William’s vibrant works give just such. I hope many of you will be able to attend and be welcomed safely yet enthusiastically by us both.”
Cookson’s oil on canvas works are priced at between £600 and £1,000 and will be available for sale at the gallery for the next two weeks. He has previously exhibited in London, Corfu and Barbados.
To arrange an appointment to view William Cookson’s art at HB Gallery, 12 Beauchamp Place, London, SW3 1NQ, telephone: +44 (0) 777 568 5778 or email [email protected] to request further details.
Handbag created by Louis Vuitton to “celebrate” the marriage of Meghan Markle to Prince Harry to be auctioned for a crazy sum
Handbags with connections to famous women often sell for crazy sums and in December 2015, The Steeple Times featured one used by Margaret Thatcher on her last visit to Downing Street. It sold for a staggering £47,500 ($60,000, €53,200 or درهم220,000) against a low estimate of just £1,000 ($1,260, €1,121 or درهم4,629) at Christie’s and now another made to “celebrate” the wedding of the then Meghan Markle to the then Prince Harry is being auctioned.
Offered with an estimate of £12,000 to £18,000 ($15,100 to $22,700, €13,500 to €20,200 or درهم55,500 to درهم83,300) in spite of not even being in perfect condition, the 2018 Louis Vuitton ‘Petite Malle’ handbag is number 13 of 21 made. It features a Union Jack flag, has a blue and black leather lined interior and comes with a dust bag and box.
Of the item, Sophie Higgs, designer collection specialist at Fellows Auctioneers, remarked: “We are delighted to announce the auction of this extremely rare handbag… In keeping with the wedding itself, the handbag has been shaped by the wealth of history that feeds all Louis Vuitton trunks, yet it flies a path of its own.”
Given the supposed frostiness with her sister-in-law, one thing’s for sure: The Duchess of Cambridge most certainly won’t be putting in a bid. ‘MeGain’ fans (if there are any left), fastest fingers at the ready – The online sale is open and closes on Monday 8th June.
The bag is described as being “in a very good condition, like new, with only one minor scuff to the top left and lower corners.”It comes with a strap and its original box.
Rare photograph of Winston Churchill dining with Edward VIII to be sold as part of a sale on the eve of the 80th anniversary of him becoming Prime Minister
Offered as part of the ‘Churchill in Charge – 80th Anniversary’ sale that concludes tomorrow, Wednesday 20th May, Sotheby’s New York is auctioning online a photograph signed by both Winston Churchill and Edward VIII.
Part of a collection built up over 37 years by Chartwell Booksellers, the independently owned Manhattan bookstore “home to the world’s finest selection of rare Churchilliana,” the framed 10-by-8-inch image was taken on the 28th February 1925 at a farewell dinner for Frank Kellogg, the retiring American Ambassador to Great Britain at the Hotel Victoria, London.
In a reversal of roles, Edward, Prince of Wales is the one whom appears to be scowling in the picture whilst Winston Churchill, for once, is the one smiling.‘The Steeple Times’ has previously featured items of Churchilliana available at auction. In January 2014, an unsmoked cigar and a cigar stub collected by Sir Winston Churchill’s care nurse whilst he was in the Middlesex Hospital in London in July 1962 sold for £812 ($993, €906 or درهم3,648).
Also in the image alongside ‘Our Smiling Prince’ (as Edward, Prince of Wales – as he then was – was nicknamed) and ‘Our Scowling PM’ (as the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Churchill became known) are Ambassador Charles Kellogg (US ambassador from 1924 to 1925) and William Grenfell, Baron Desborough.
Of the lot and the evening the photograph was taken, Sotheby’s remark:
The dinner was convened by The Pilgrims of Great Britain society, whose motto appears on a framed sign behind the table: “Hic et Ubique” (“Here and Everywhere”). The Pilgrims society was founded in 1902 “to promote good-will, good-fellowship, and everlasting peace between the United States and Great Britain.”
Winston Churchill was serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer to Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin at the time of this photograph. Baron Desborough was an athlete of renown in Great Britain, as well as a politician, and the president of the Pilgrims society. His wife, known as “Ettie,” was one of England’s great society hostesses, a leading figure in the social group “The Souls,” entertaining luminaries at their country house, Taplow Court, such as H.G. Wells, Vita Sackville-West, Oscar Wilde, and, of course, the Prince of Wales and Winston Churchill. The couple lost two sons in the trenches during World War I, including Julian Grenfell, a noted war poet.
The Prince of Wales would ascend to the throne upon the death of his father, King George V, in January 1936. He and Winston Churchill were longtime friends. Churchill almost destroyed his own political career attempting to ward off abdication and save Edward’s crown. In the end, he failed. Edward VIII renounced the throne on December 9, 1936 to marry his commoner love, Wallis Warfield Simpson.
A starting bid of £12,245 ($15,000, €13,695 or درهم55,088) has been set for the photograph along with a high estimate of £19,588 ($24,000, €21,907 or درهم88,140). As of this morning, there have been no bids for the lot.
“Ugly duckling” ex-crab boat converted into “ultimate fun factory” by billionaire equity investor for sale for 47% less than in 2017; it comes with gadgets galore amongst them a two-seat amphibious flying boat
Stanford educated private equity investor Richard Kayne manages over £25.3 billion ($31 billion, €28.7 billion or درهم113.8 billion) through his firm Kayne Anderson Capital Advisers. He also “doesn’t like to sit still,” has over 300 employees and is not only pretty “alternative” in the way he invests; he’s also pretty unusual in the style of yacht he favours.
Father of three Kayne took up sailing in order to “get [his] daughters involved in a family experience” around 2002 and then commissioned a 164-foot yacht named JeMaSa – a merger of the names of Jenni, Maggie and Saree, his aforementioned children. His love of “toys” – such as Eurocopter helicopters, sea planes, submarines, tenders, flyboards, jet-skis and inflatable water slides – subsequently resulted in a further purchase, a 170-foot steel hulled crab fishing boat that he intended simply to use as a “supply boat” to house his ever-growing collection of “kit.”
Richard Kayne and his wife Suzanne.Prior to becoming ‘SuRi,’ the yacht was a crab fishing vessel named ‘Fierce Contender.’Nowadays, the boat is more likely to be found taking wealthy individuals to off-the-beaten track locations.
Previously known as Fierce Contender (built in Lockport, Louisiana in 1978) and used in the Discovery Channel television series Deadliest Catch, the boat was converted into a “shadow yacht” in Seattle over the winter of 2007. Of the work, in November 2019, Kayne told Boat International:
“Designing the garage was a challenge. In addition to the helicopter we had a hovercraft, one of the world’s noisiest boats, a hand-built mahogany speedboat, a work boat, WaveRunners, Sea-Doos, sailboats, ski and wakesurfing boats and, eventually, an amphibious airplane.”
Renamed SuRi – a combination of his name and that of his wife, Suzanne – the Kayne family then took their fleet to Denarau, Fiji and though together the financier termed them his “hundred-metre articulated yacht,” he later came to realise that “neither yacht was adequate for all the people and all the toys.”
His response came in 2011 and of it, he announced: “I did another silly thing – I decided to sell JeMeSa and jumbo-size SuRi.” The boat was taken to Alameda, California, cut in half and expanded to provide further accommodation and “what is arguably the largest toy garage-cum-aircraft hangar afloat outside the US Navy.” The resulting “amenity-rich explorer yacht” is now 208-foot long and can accommodate 18 guests in 7 cabins with 19 crew.
Capable of a range of 7,400 nautical miles at a maximum speed of 13 knots, SuRi became what its owner termed “the ultimate fun factory” where: “Whatever it is that you want to do – put jet boots on your feet and go flying up in the air, go kitesurfing, take a cruise in a Riva type of boat, or go wakeboarding, wake surfing, waterskiing, fishing or diving, you just go and do it.”
Now, however, Kayne’s enthusiasm has moved on to developing an “American-style golf club” on New Zealand’s North Island. He first put SuRi – which astonishingly has over 3,300 followers on its Instagram account – up for charter through firms such as Cookson Adventures and then tried to sell the yacht for £35.8 million ($43.9 million, €40.7 million or درهم161.2 million) in 2017. That price plainly was not achievable and now, Burgess Yachts are offering the craft for the much-reduced sum of £18.8 million ($23 million, €21.7 million or درهم84.5 million).
Riccardo’s restaurant in Chelsea leads the way in showing community mindedness during the coronavirus outbreak
Across the land small businesses are doing their bit for their communities and a case in point in Chelsea comes in the form of Riccardo’s, the popular Tuscan style Italian restaurant on Fulham Road.
Owner Riccardo Mariti, having had to close for seated lunch and dinner service, has most helpfully turned his premises into a deli and is offering a delivery service also. Not only is the restaurant selling standard items such as pizza and organic chicken from the Rhug Estate in North Wales, but they also offer lavatory roll at £2 per pack (limited to one per order), fresh milk, mixed fruit and vegetables, fresh meat and wine also. Food and other items can either be delivered or collected.
Whilst many others are providing such, Riccardo’s is going one stage further and is also offering use of their maintenance crew to help with shopping and emergency repairs in the locality as well. Here, indeed, is a fine example of selflessness and here is a business that deserves to be saluted. If you’re nearby, here’s a far better solution than facing the queues at Sainsbury’s.
Riccardo’s, 126 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 6HU. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7370 6656. To see what is available and order, click here.
