Tag: royal

Moron of the Moment – Lady Victoria Hervey

Just as ultimate dumbo Lady Victoria Hervey shows herself up in stating “Fuck Black Lives Matter,” fellow aristo Dr. Bendor Grosvenor calls for the return of objects “looted during the British Empire”

Dimwitted dope Lady Victoria Hervey just cannot help but shove her stilettos straight into the proverbial. Whether be it her short-lived relationship with “he who doesn’t sweat in Pizza Express (Woking branch’)” ‘Randy’ Prince Andrew, or flogging knickers in her long since gone-bust shop in Knightsbridge displaying the words “Yes Please” across the crotch, here is a woman with utterly no shame and an utter incapacity to accept any kind of blame for her own failings.

Formerly nicknamed ‘Toff Totty Vicky,’ Lady Victoria predictably showed herself up by banging on about her associations with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell last year. This weekend, the bubbly blonde went further in posting a picture of the defaced statute of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia on her Instagram page. She not-so charmingly captioned the snap: “Don’t ever tell me this is acceptable behavior [sic]. Fuck BLM [Black Lives Matter].”

Described by even a fellow socialite, the late Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, as “unpleasant” and “a right snob” previously, “luxury is in my blood” Lady Victoria was contradicted by the Reverend Robert W. Lee IV, the general’s great-great-grandson. He “gave his blessing for the monument to be removed” on Thursday according to the BBC and asked: “If today is not the right time, when will it be the right time [to remove the statue]?”

Going further of this situation on Twitter on Sunday, though talking in the context of the related British protests, fellow aristocrat Dr. Bendor Grosvenor – a distant relative of the present Duke of Westminster and a man best known for his stint on the BBC’s Fake or Fortune? art documentary series – tweeted:

“Let the Colston statue’s removal be a prompt for councils and museums across Britain to take action to remove similar artworks from display, *as well as* returning the thousands of cultural objects looted during the British Empire. Start now. We’ve waited too long.”

Sadly, yet not unsurprisingly, Lady Victoria – whose ancestor Frederick Hervey, 1^st Marquess of Bristol ironically is best remembered as a “social reformer” and “an MP [who] voted for the abolition of slavery in 1807” – has previous form. In 2003, this ‘aristoprat’ stated: “It’s so bad being homeless in winter. They should go somewhere warm like the Caribbean where they can eat fresh fish all day.”

Shame on this irrelevant ignoramus; it’s not Black Lives that don’t matter, it’s instead Victoria Hervey that doesn’t matter.

Lady Victoria Hervey with the Duke of York at a social gathering; supporter of the abolition of slavery and “social reformer” Frederick William Hervey, 5th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bristol (1769 – 1859).

Lady Victoria Hervey’s offensive Instagram post was unsurprisingly met with disdain by many. One responded: “Wait, hold up Lady are you saying Fuck Black Lives ???” Another added: “But think you got to be careful saying fuck BLM… That’s not acceptable TBH. It’s offensive.”

Dr. Bendor Grosvenor’s, by contrast, sensible tweet.

Classic clangers from former ‘It Girl’ Lady Victoria Hervey:

“I am Lady Victoria Hervey – it doesn’t get more British than that.”

“Unless it’s champagne, I can’t handle it.”

“I do have a day job.”

“My career always goes much better when I haven’t got a man.”

“A baby is easy – you hand them over to a nanny!”

“I’m not stupid. I’m not a dumb model.”

“[I aim to become] the next Kate Winslet – but with class.”

“I have had four past lives, three of them as a man. I was a composer in 17th-century Paris, I made materials in India and in Ancient Greece I was a famous politician. In Ancient Egypt I was keeper of the oils for the Pharaoh’s wife, and I love oils so it all kind of fits.”

“What annoys me is when these families have got like 12 children and we’re paying for these kids… They work out that they make more money being on the dole than having a job, they just laze around.”

“The real irony of this is that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.”

“Travelling is in my blood, and so is liking luxurious things and spending.”

“I haven’t given up on men, there are a few of them around, but I keep leaving every city I meet them in.”

“Everyone from Europe wants to buy houses in LA.”

“I was too old for Jeffrey Epstein… [He seemed] very charming… He was a very well-liked guy.”

“I’m not one of those kind of girls, I don’t like going to dinners with ten models invited… I was very young and impressionable, Jeffrey was a very charismatic man.”

“I haven’t seen [Ghislaine Maxwell] since September [2018] at a friend’s baby shower… I don’t think anyone is going to find her. She’s gone far away. She’s a bit like a James Bond character. She’s quite a unique person and I don’t believe anyone is going to find her… I don’t think we will ever see her again, it’s going to be like Robert Maxwell continued; she will continue that family mystery.”

“I had no idea what was going on [with Jeffrey Epstein]… It’s extraordinary it’s the case, it’s a wild story.”

“I suddenly thought, I’m just Victoria Hervey… Horrible.”

“I don’t want to make enemies.”

Pictured top: Lady Victoria Hervey with Ghislaine Maxwell, the alleged madam and procurer of girls for paedophile Jeffey Epstein.

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June 7, 2020
Handbagged by Meghan

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 8^th June.

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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.

June 3, 2020
Wally of the Week – Stephanie Pratt

Shoplifter Stephanie Pratt fulfils her prattish surname in urging urges cops to shoot shoplifters

Crazy crackpot Stephanie Pratt happens to be a criminal. This former crystal meth addict is also a loudmouth and now, she’s fulfilled her prattish surname in demanding shoplifters be shot.

Twerp of Twitter, ‘Shady Steph’ – a washed-up wastrel who’ll not be giving Albert Einstein a run for his money any day soon – posted the comment: “Shoot the looters” on Monday, but deleted the remark after being quite correctly reminded she’d been arrested for stealing £1,033 ($1,300) of clothing from Neiman Marcus in May 2006. Whilst in custody this rotten ratbag was also found to be in the possession of drugs.

Reported to Twitter for “inciting violence” and called out a “worthless good for nothing tw*t,” pointless pillock Pratt did not stop there. Further examples of this dumb blonde’s recent social media ‘activity’ follows.

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Poor lamb – Pratt highlighted her first world problems in May. She couldn’t find an airline willing to take her and her pooch.

Shopped out – In April, this alleged-no-longer-a-junkie tried to claim she’d found a new addiction: Amazon. Anyone got a polygraph machine handy?

Music’s not her forte – In March, madam shared news of someone we’ve never heard of writing a song about “the horrible coronavirus.” Her sentiments made sense to just about no one.

We’re sure the Queen was touched – In January, Pratt claimed to be “in complete denial” about Prince Harry and his wife quitting royal duties. The reality car wreck most likely hankers after the dastardly duo becoming her new ‘besties.’

Cleaned out – In November last year, ‘Shady Steph’ shared news that she cleans her house before her cleaner arrives. Anyone surprised? Anyone guessing she might have a lot of white stuff to hoover up?

June 3, 2020
Beautiful Bolehyde

Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents again for sale

Described as a “royal love nest for the Middletons” by The Telegraph when last marketed for sale in March 2011, Bolehyde Manor (pronounced according to the paper: “Bow lea Hyde”) in Wilshire was home to the Duchess of Cornwall, as plain old Camilla Parker Bowles, from 1973 until 1986.

Considered, but subsequently discounted by Carole and Michael Middleton as a home prior to their purchase of the £4.7 million The Manor at Bucklebury (featured in The Steeple Times in June 2012), Grade II* listed Bolehyde Manor at Allington, near Chippenham was at that time offered for £4.76 million according to the Daily Mail’s Richard Kay.

Kay lauded the “14^th-century pile near Chippenham” as having “everything an aspiring lord (and lady and the manor could wish for” and reported it as having been “not just where Prince Charles retreated when his marriage crumbled, intriguingly it was also where he courted Lady Diana.”

According to the royal biographer Christopher Wilson – quoted in an article in the Daily Express in May this year – “in 1979, there was very little pretense about the intensity of the relationship between Prince Charles and Camilla. Most of the week he would be staying at Bolehyde Manor, sometimes Andrew Parker Bowles would come home for the weekend and Prince Charles would stay. But there was a very curious ménage à trois between these three.”

Whether the house sold in 2011 is unknown, but this week it has again been placed for sale through agents Savills. They are marketing the manor at a sum £1 million lower for £3.75 million and with it comes 80.13 acres.

Aside from the main 4 reception room, 8-bedroom main house, there is a 3-bedroom annexe and in addition the property has three additional cottages, stabling and outbuildings. There is a tennis court and swimming pool with the grounds and the majority of the land is devoted to organic farming.

One thing is, for sure, the former Meghan Markle won’t be putting in a bid in spite of Bolehyde Manor having glorious gardens that have opened under the National Garden Scheme.

The Names & Numbers – Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom

June 2020 – For sale for £3.75 million ($4.71 million, €4.21 million or درهم17.31 million) through Savills.

March 2011 – Offered for sale for £4.76 million ($5.98 million, €5.35 million or درهم21.96 million) by the Earl and Countess Cairns.

1986 – Sold for £600,000 ($754,000, €674,000 or درهم2.8 million) by Andrew and Camilla Parker Bowles to Simon and Amanda Cairns.

1973 – Andrew Parker Bowles moves in along with his then wife Camilla.

1927 – Sold to a Mrs Mallet du Cros “in very indifferent repair” by the Gale family according to Country Life. She “restored and modernised it.”

1635 – Sold to a yeoman named John Gale.

Mid 17^th century – Built on the site of an earlier house occupied by one Thomas de Bolehyde, a tenant of the Abbot of Glaston-bury.

Pictured top: Carole Middleton, Bolehyde Manor and the Duchess of Cornwall.

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The interior features traditional English country house style decoration.

This study is currently lined with plenty of reading material.

Original features including panelling abound throughout Bolehyde Manor.

A pleasant courtyard garden is to be found to the rear of the house.

To the front is a formal lawned area.

Three cottages come with the house as well as an annexe also.

The gardens have previously been opened to the public under the National Garden Scheme.

They are quite delightful.

A plan of the 80 acres currently offered with Bolehyde Manor.

June 2, 2020
Mixed Up McGee

Dippy Debbie McGee yet again confirms her status as the ultimate airhead in boasting about her connections to ‘Randy Andy’ and is met with a denial from a royal source

Right now, most people would keep quiet any connection to Prince Andrew. Aside from his antics in Pizza Express (Woking branch), the disgraced royal is “in financial hot water following the Epstein scandal” according to Tatler’s amusingly named Hope Coke and he’s been “royally dumped” by everyone from Barclays to the University of Huddersfield.

With his dimwit on-off live-in ex-wife forced to take up hawking crappy books yet again to fend off other creditors, Prince Andrew’s woes continue to mount and now ‘The Lovely Debbie McGee’ has gone and stuck her oar into the thick of it. Of course, as always with “a sandwich short of a picnic” Debbie, it wasn’t meant nastily, but, as ever with her, the intervention was anything but relevant.

In this morning’s Daily Mail, a decidedly short-of-real-stories reporter called David Wilkes shared vitally important news that the late Paul Daniels’ wife now has a podcast titled Spill The Tea with Debbie McGee. He also revealed that on it, she’d bragged that Prince Andrew had flown the magician in “one of Her Majesty’s helicopters” from Stoke-on-Trent to Windsor Castle.

“Muggins, Me, McGee” – who also fascinatingly told of how she’d “knocked over a glass of wine last week” and “burnt the edges of her salad leaves the other day” on the podcast too – reported that she did not get to go along for the ride and was instead forced to drive the couple’s car to London. She, thus, luckily avoided an encounter with the Duke of York’s non-sweating hands, but was “sad” that she didn’t get a lift in the Queen’s car – which her husband got to hitch a lift in from Windsor to The Savoy Hotel also.

In response, a “royal source” flatly denied ‘Dim Debbie’s’ claims and remarked: “If this story is true it did not involve one of Her Majesty’s helicopters.” The poor dear plainly conjured up this story from the bottom of her tea leaves, but at least it wasn’t as sordid as when she revealed she put a “disturb mask across her private parts” whilst naked and waiting for her husband to come to bed. Now there’s a sexual story that definitely should not be repeated.

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May 26, 2020
Smiling Churchill and Scowling Edward

Rare photograph of Winston Churchill dining with Edward VIII to be sold as part of a sale on the eve of the 80^th anniversary of him becoming Prime Minister

Offered as part of the ‘Churchill in Charge – 80^th Anniversary’ sale that concludes tomorrow, Wednesday 20^th 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 28^th 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.

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May 19, 2020
Heroine of the Hour – Anne Diamond

Anne Diamond is right to call out the Duchess of Sussex’s mint-making collaboration with Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand’s ‘Finding Freedom’ as annoying, daft and delusional

Yesterday, in the Mirror, Anne Diamond launched what some termed a “brutal attack” on the Duchess of Sussex and her collaboration with her favourite mouthpiece PR people, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.

Diamond, whom branded ‘MeGain’ “either clever, cynical or both” and suggested the public will “all be daft enough to buy [Scobie and Durand’s book Finding Freedom],” rightly argued that the exercise is nothing but an attempt to sure up a “nest egg.”

Going further of this “laughing all the way to the bank” excuse for a “F*** Off Fund par excellence” for the former Miss Markle, Diamond rightly labelled this tripe “futile” and “annoying.”

Anne Diamond is spot on. This tome of “self-serving conceit” deserves to be pulped.

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May 18, 2020
Grubby Story Time With Fergie & Friends

‘Randy Andy’s’ ex-wife Sarah Ferguson excels (again) in sharing videos of coronavirus bailout money grabber Sir Richard Branson’s son on her not so popular YouTube channel

You’d have thought Sarah Ferguson – ex-wife and live-in comedy sidekick of he who doesn’t sweat (unless he’s in the Woking branch of Pizza Express or allegedly grubbing around doing a bit of groping in the mansion of a now dead paedophile) Prince Andrew – would have kept her gob shut for once, but no, as ever, this weird whackjob just could not help herself.

On Saturday, in spite of stories circulating about the pugnacious pair being sued for £6.7 million after not stumping up what they owe on a £20 million Swiss ski chalet (as only these spendthrifts could be expected to do) and yet more tawdry revelations about Prince Andrew inappropriately paying £355,927 to his former private secretary via his PACT charity (strange that that shares a name with that of their “charity tin rattling” mate Baroness Meyer’s now-deservedly-also-closed-down “venture”), Sarah Ferguson decided to take to YouTube.

Here, on her not especially popular channel (she has just 2,500 followers), she shared a video of the son of one of the most loathed individuals of the coronavirus lockdown, Sir Richard Branson, strumming on a guitar and reading a story (it must have been hard for him to sit on a very expensive private island doing that whilst daddy was out begging for yet more millions of public wonga).

Sarah Ferguson seems to think reading stories to children on YouTube will help redeem her reputation; the investors and creditors owed millions quite rightly think otherwise.

As part of her crassly titled “Fergie & Friends” (does she actually have any left?) stories series, Sam Branson read from a book titled: I Am Human: A Book of Empathy. Somewhat laughably, the tale about “finding my way and choosing my path” (something Fergie most definitely isn’t terribly good at) had only received 12 likes on YouTube by Monday morning and given any chance of forgiveness for the ‘Duchess of Dork’ – whom also is facing legal actions from Chinese investors whom she took over £500,000 from – is all but over, she’d perhaps have done better to have parked this particular episode.

Also last week, self-declared “spokesperson, best-selling children’s author, businesswoman, wellness advocate, producer and global humanitarian” (is there anything she can’t turn her money snatching hands to?) Ferguson joined LinkedIn. God only knows why she took such a course of action as frankly no one in their right mind would employ this train wreck. Frankly, instead, the well-known toe sucking wastrel would have done better to have simply done something else: She should have given up on the idea of ‘work’ (not that she knows what such even is) and taken ‘Randy Andy’ and retired together Sotogrande. If she did that, perhaps poor old ‘Brenda’ might get out of supposedly once again having to pay off yet more of the on-off couple’s bills and the non-sweater could save a dime and enjoy yet another freebie on the golf course.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzFslpUsGyc

May 11, 2020
A Cut Cost Château

Vast “fairytale” château in France’s Loire Valley for sale for ‘just’ £28 million in spite of having had £80 million spent already on its renovation; it was most famously owned by Madame de Pompadour

In 2017, a Lebanese-born, Monaco-based property developer named Edmond Baysari placed what selling agents Sotheby’s International Realty describes as the “most beautiful and majestic castle in [the] Loire Valley” on the market. It’s so big and so costly to maintain that it remains for sale still today.

Harvard educated Mr Baysari purchased the 102,257 square foot château for about £4.3 million in 1983 from the Parisian glassmakers Saint-Gorbain. It had been used as their company retreat from 1939 and had earlier belonged to Jeanne Antoinette Poisson – the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to 1751 and a woman better known as ‘Madame de Pompadour’ – in the years prior to her premature death from tuberculosis in 1764 aged just 42.

Providing “regally appointed” accommodation so vast that it is not even described in detail that includes around 50 bedrooms and a wine cellar capable of housing 30,000 bottles amongst other things, Château de Menars – or the ‘Palace Pompadour’ as some have nicknamed it – costs around £800,000 per year to run. In total, some £80 million has been spent renovating it “using the same methods” that the king’s mistress originally employed.

Of why he is selling, the heirless businessman’s lawyer, Jack Anderson, told Reuters in 2017: “[Mr Baysari] realises destiny is going to take him… His goal is to know that it’s in the hands of someone who’s going to continue the beauty of the chateau and maintain it.”

The 104 acres of grounds that surround the château includes vineyards yielding pinot noir grapes, “elegant” geometric grassed lawns and more than a mile of frontage to the River Loire. Classical sculptures and gazebos abound and there is, according to Reuters, “a cobbled courtyard large enough to land a helicopter” also.

During Baysari’s ownership guests at Château de Menars have supposedly numbered Prince Charles, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mick Jagger and President Ronald Reagan. Now, Sotheby’s International Realty point out: “We think this could be perfect for the creation of a luxury hotel complex… Or for the acquisition of an extraordinary and very large private property.”

His “English spoken” [sic] agent, Jean-Pierre Piganiol, seeks £27.6 million and according to Forbes, “several nine-figure offers from Russian and Middle Eastern billionaires looking for a trophy home” have already been turned down.

The Names & Numbers – Château de Menars, Loire Valley, Blois, 41000, France

2015 to date – For sale through Sotheby’s International Realty for sale for £27.6 million ($34.5 million, €31.5 million or درهم126.6 million).

2000 – Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

1983 to 2017 – The sum said to have been spent on restoration of the Château de Menars is said to have been £80.1 million ($100 million, €91.4 million or درهم367.3 million). Annual upkeep costs are said to be £801,000 million ($1 million, €914,000 million or درهم3.7 million).

1983 – Sold to Edmond Baysari for 5 million francs or the equivalent of £4.3 million ($5.4 million, €4.9 million or درهم19.7 million).

1949 – Declared an Historic Monument of France.

1939 – Sold after his death by Mr Allard’s daughters, Blanche Lasserre, Yvonne Arnodin and Jeanne Goirand, to Saint-Gobain, the Parisian glassmakers, for use as their company retreat.

April 1912 – Acquired for 700,050 francs (about £27,400 at that time) by Félix Allard, a “contractor for public works.” He modernised the château and added mains water, hot air heating, gas lighting and electricity and features including a large gallery area.

1760 – Purchased by Madame de Pompadour (1721 – 1764) for 1 million livres (about £75,000 at that time). She “sold some pearl bracelets to meet the first payment” and commissioned the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build two new wings on either side of the two existing pavilions on the property. Sadly for her, she never saw it completed as she died from tuberculosis in 1764.

1728 to 1732 – Stanislas Leszcynski (1677 – 1766), the King of Poland, stayed at Château de Menars whilst in exile as a guest of the Charon family.

1669 – Jean-Jacques Charon (1643 – 1718), son of Jacques Charon, “added two unequal wings to the chateau and considerably enlarged the estate.”

1646 – Commencement of the construction of a castle on the site by one Jacques Charon. It “composed of a main building and two symmetrical pavilions.”

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April 10, 2020
An Exceptional Estate

One-of-one 2005 Ferrari 612 shooting brake by Vanderbrink to be auctioned in Monte Carlo; unlike other Ferrari estates, it’s not from the ownership of Brunei royalty

One wouldn’t normally associate Ferrari with shooting brakes – combinations of coupés and estate cars – but now, one that symbolises the reverse of Enzo Ferrari’s mantra of “I build engines and attach wheels to them” is going to auction.

As rare as hen’s teeth, with the exceptions being the seven or so built for the Sultan of Brueni and his brother Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the vehicle to be offered by Bonhams will be sold at their ‘Les Grandes Marques à Monaco’ sale in Monte Carlo on 8^th May.

Whilst little information is supplied on the firm’s website other than to list the 2005 Ferrari 612 shooting brake with an estimate of £130,000 to £220,000 ($161,000 to $273,000, €146,000 to €247,000 or درهم592,000 to درهم1 million), much more has been written about it elsewhere online.

The car, it transpires, is the brainchild of Amsterdam based Vandenbrink Design. The firm took a 2005 Ferrari 612 and reconfigured it to include what is described by Take to the Road as the “low roof and sleek lines of a coupé.” The magazine argue that it “thus [retains] sporting appeal, whilst adding the practicality of a wagon.”

They enthusiastically continue: “The extended roof line isn’t exaggerated and preserves the distinctive sporting look of the 612 Scaglietti. Plus the addition of the wonderfully sculpted twin roof glass provides rear passengers with enough light to ensure they are not completely cocooned in darkness. The real talking point however is the boot which is cavernous, when compared to traditional Ferrari standards. It is a true all-round practical Ferrari with enough luggage room for extended trips well beyond just ‘weekend bags.’”

Previously listed for sale on Classic Driver, the grey with beige leather interior, left-hand-drive car has covered about 18,000 miles and seats 2+2. In spite of having a “cavernous” boot lined with vast expanses of hide, one won’t likely see this shooting brake on a pheasant shoot or grouse moor any day soon. Instead, it’ll more likely be found in the future parked outside the smartest spots on the Côte d’Azur.

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March 30, 2020