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11/05/2004
Bonhams at Hendon, UK and Brookline, USA 2004 - Review

1955 3-litre Ferrari 500/750 Mondial/Monza Spider Corsa #0560MD sold for £353,500
A busy six days for Bonhams. On Monday 26th April their London office completed an epic, selling the AJ Lees Collection and regular lots at Hendon. While on Saturday 1st May Brookline was the venue for automobilia and motor-cars. The most significant sale was in the UK when someone successfully bid £166,500 (that’s £196,637 including VAT levied on all items in the Lees Sale) for the alloy 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB ‘Project’.

Bonhams at Hendon 26/4/04 -

1966 alloy Ferrari 275 GTB ‘Project’

Just one of the lots from the AJ Lees Collection

It was a marathon, but Robert Brooks comfortably completed it without the need for the oxygen tent. The AJ Lees collection of mainly Ferrari-related spares and some complete chassis must have kept a cardboard box merchant in business, and surveying the scene on both the Sunday preview day and Monday, your author could only consider the task of packing and un-packing it at Hendon - and then packing it up again if unsold. A frightful proposition. Happily for the Bonhams porters, the vast majority was moved on at very good prices such as £22,425 for a rare pair of 6 stud Weber 58 DCOA3 carburettors, or £4,140 for a hard-to-find Veglia Ferrari 8000rpm rev-counter.

Pretty extraordinary stuff, but when the chassis and restoration project cars came along the prices started rocketing for items with chassis-numbers and good provenance. The alloy 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB was first-off and the bidding just went on and on until finally hammered for £166,500. The two sports-racing Ferraris were expected to fetch some money, despite the extensive restoration required, and they produced the goods; the 1955 3-litre 500/750 Mondial/Monza #0560MD fetching £353,500 and the ex-Franco Cortese, 1956 500 Testa Rossa #0640 MD/TR £210,500.

Following on from the Lees part of the sale was a ‘usual’ Bonhams-at-Hendon selection. A high percentage of the cars were sold, some of the highlights being a 1933 Rolls-Royce 20/25hp Sports Saloon for £33,925, a 1933 Rolls-Royce 20/25hp Three-Position DHC by Gurney Nutting for £73,000, and the 1967 Jaguar E-Type Series I Lightweight Low-Drag Competition Coupé for £87,300. The latter was a car we pictured in our preview and would benefit from a more ‘butch’, black leather and bare aluminium interior - the beige velour not quite managing to match the car’s exterior's sporting pretensions.

Two very nice entries existed in the 1971 Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3 Saloon, sold for £11500, and a pretty, dark blue 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider going for £17,250.

Click HERE to see the full Hendon results, and HERE to see the AJ Lees Collection results.

Bonhams & Butterfields at Brookline 1/5/04 -

Over the water a few days later the company’s American division, Bonhams & Butterfields, sold their two big lots at Brookline, namely the 1950 Maserati A6GCS dual-purpose racing car for $588,000 and the 1913 Mercer Model 35 Roadster 'Runabout' for $412,000. Both sums are sizeable figures and way above other entries, although the $92,000 for the 1956 Lancia Aurelia Convertible was a useful amount.

We mentioned the Lalique in our preview and I know it would be dereliction of duty to miss out on the news that the rare and superb 'Renard' mascot sold for $181,000.

Click HERE to see the full Brookline results.

Bonhams Europe will be holding the company's next 2004 sale, on May 15 at Monaco. Please click HERE to see all the lots entered on the Classic Driver car database.

Bonhams Motor Cars Dept.
10 Salem Rd
London W2 4DL
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7313 3176
Fax: +44 (0)20 7313 3170

Text - Steve Wakefield
Photos - Bonhams/Classic Driver

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