27/02/2012
RM Sells The Milhous Collection for $38.3m
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| Pontiac Marquee Sign (estimate:$8,000 - 12,000) - Sold for $34,500
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Over two days in Boca Raton, Florida, the entire catalogue of fairground collectibles, mechanical musical pieces, cars, guns and petroliana belonging to the Milhous brothers was sold for a total of $38.3 million.
RM Auctions, in association with Sotheby’s, conducted the sale at the brothers’ own Milhous Museum. Collectors’ cars were but a small part of the walloping catalogue but did provide the highest-selling lot: the 1912 Oldsmobile Limited Five-Passenger Touring. It went for $3,300,000, a new world record for an Oldsmobile sold at auction.
Elsewhere, staggering sums exchanged hands for some of the world's finest mechanical musical instruments.
A ‘1903 Ruth Style 38-B Fair Organ’ achieved $1,265,000, the ‘Gaudin 125-Key Dance Organ’, $1,150,000 and the ‘1913 Welte Wotan Brass Band Orchestrion’, $1,092,500.
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| Shell Computing Gas Pump (estimate: $3,000 - 5,000) - Sold for $16,100
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Amusing Pair of Monumental Painted Fiberglass Fairytale "Nutcracker" Soldiers (estimate: $3,000 - 6,000) - Sold for $23,000
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These were not always on upper-estimate, but some of the items smashed through pre-sale guide prices. The signs, for example, with pieces such as the neon ‘Buick Lubricare’ selling for $11,500 against an estimate of $3,000 - 4,000. Or the large Pontiac one you see above.
The sporting guns went pretty well on-estimate, while the cars did very well indeed.
Over $150k ($154,000, in fact) for the c. 1910 Cretors Popcorn and Peanut Wagon? Oh yes, and don’t forget the $1,001,000 1934 Cadillac Sixteen Custom Roadster, or the 1939 Lagonda V-12 Rapide Sports Roadster almost doubling its $400,000 - 550,000 estimate to sell for $990,000.
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| Remington Model 58 .44 Caliber Revolver (estimate: $1,100 - 1,600) - Sold for $3,163
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RM will be expecting a similarly impressive performance at its next Florida sale, the 10 March Amelia Island event. You can view these cars in the Classic Driver Marketplace.
After that, it’s off to Monaco for another two-day selling bonanza on 11-12 May.
Text: Steve Wakefield
Photos: RM Auctions
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