LONDON.- The H&H Motorcycle Sale which took place on April 7th behind closed doors as a Live Auction Online dispatched 129 lots for a total of £900,000 – a 67% sell rate. No fewer than five of the top seven bikes sold were Vincents, stamping new collectable authority onto the rising value of this British marque.
Mark Bryan, Head of Motorcycle sales for
H&H says: “Given the context – a global pandemic – this is a remarkable result which speaks so clearly of the passion collectors have for motorcycles and the trust they have in H&H. People were buying bikes they had not seen and without knowing precisely when they could take delivery”
Top items in the sale were:
• Lot 120, 1955 Vincent Black Shadow Series C sold for £47,150
• Lot 115, 1954 Vincent Rapide Series C for £36,800
• Lot 119, 1947 Vincent Rapide Series B for £35,075
• Lot 161, 1938 Vincent Meteor Series A for £34,500
• Lot 90, 1930 Norton CS1 for £27,600
• Lot 108, 1973 Triumph X-75 Hurricane for £23,000
• Lot 125, 1948 Vincent Meteor Series B for £23,000.
1930 Norton CS1 sold for £27,600 to save a church
One hundred per cent of funds from the sale of this 1930 Norton CS1 will go towards the purchase of the Old URC Church in Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset, built by a distant relation of the bike’s owner, former RAF pilot, Bill Southcombe.
The whole community is doing its bit to seal the deal on saving the church which plays host to a number of community projects.
Bill Southcombe explains why his bike has come to be sold to save the church: “If we fail to buy the church it will be auctioned by the Synod, to developers probably, or left to decay.” As a Trustee of the charity set up to save the church he has already donated the value of two other of his bikes.
“It’s a Congregational Church built by my ancestor, Richard Southcombe, for the community in 1866. It is Grade 2* listed and in very good condition and was given to the URC Synod in 2016 by the Elders. If we are to save it we must pay the Synod this year, 2020”.
The H&H Classic auction of Vintage and Collector cars at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford on March 18th went ahead and achieved £2.3m, despite huge logistical challenges created by the last minute closure of the venue to the public by the Ministry of Defence due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Damian Jones, Head of Sales at H&H responded to numerous requests for advice about buying at a strange time like this with the following thought about the state of the market: “The Bank Of England’s recent interest rate cut from 0.75% to 0.25% plus the volatility of the world’s stock markets (down circa 20% in places) may have given people more impetus to put money into an alternative asset class, what you might call an ‘investment of passion’. The collector car market has softened overall over the past few years but as the latest Knight Frank Wealth Report shows it is still performing well compared to its peers.”
H&H Classics have a hugely experienced, loyal and committed team and when combined with some very innovative and clever long term planning this agile and creative company was able to pull together and achieve an amazing result despite being advised by the Government that the venue would be closed to the public less than 24 hours before the sale was due to start.
Simon Hope, chairman and founder of the 27-year-old company says: ”It was a huge challenge and the staff are simply amazing. They deserve huge praise”.
The Coronavirus pandemic threatened to derail the whole auction as it was slowly closing the country down. So the team formulated a plan and monitored every Government announcement as well as listening to advice from Public Health England, the World Health Organisation, the NHS and local government. “The well-being of our clients is, and always will be, of paramount importance.”
Simon Hope says: “On Tuesday, March 17th around lunchtime it looked as though we might just be able to hold the auction, by the skin of our teeth, but in the event it was cancelled giving us just half a day to prepare.”
“We are used to holding very successful Live Auction Online sales, having started them some 18 months ago, and are the only company to use an auctioneer to bring some life to those sales as opposed to simply having a timed auction. So that was our plan, to go online, but of course we did not have time to inform everyone that they would not be allowed into the Duxford venue – even if we knew who was actually coming!”
“And so the sale started. Lot One went for nearly double its estimate and the highest priced car to sell, a Lagonda LG6 Drophead Coupe, sold for £209,000. Our ability to market the cars properly, allow viewing to take place before the auction by arrangement with the seller, draft in extra people to man the telephone lines and the trust in the descriptions of the cars and trust in our brand carried us through.”
One market analyst, John Mayhead, wrote to Damian Jones: “Huge congratulations to you and the team for a massive effort yesterday ...... a testament to your team’s hard work and ingenuity.”
H&H had faced down the Coronavirus threat, selling over 60% of the cars and clearing £2.3m while doing everything humanly possible to keep clients, safe, informed and able to pursue their passion for classic cars.
