Motorcar collectors, aficionados and friends of the LeMay family assembled September 11-12, 2009 at the Hotel Murano’s Bicentennial Pavilion in Tacoma, WA for the first annual Bonhams & Butterfields sale held to raise funds for America’s Car Museum.
This auction featured never-before offered cars from the famous LeMay Collection, sold to benefit the museum, and included competitive bidding from those gathered in the pavilion as well as from clients as far afield as Austria, the UK, and across North America.
According to Bonhams & Butterfields CEO Malcolm Barber, “We are delighted to support America’s Car Museum and are pleased with the sale’s results – 85% of the offered motorcars have found new owners. This is our first successful fund-raising auction in Tacoma and we look forward to returning next year.”
Mark Osborne, Bonhams’ V.P. and Motoring Dept. Director, added, “This inaugural sale supported a wonderful atmosphere in the room – the gathered crowd was extremely responsive to the auctioneer, with enthusiastic rounds of applause following the sale of many rare and desirable cars.”
Bonhams’ next auction will be the September 18th Goodwood Revival sale in the UK and the firm’s annual auction and viewing at the Lars Anderson Auto Museum near Boston – Vintage New England, a Sale of Important Motorcars and Automobilia – set for Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009.
Top lots in the Tacoma, WA sale include:
$430,000 paid for the 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe, carefully maintained, one of only 1,400 iconic machines produced over a 3-year period [lot 28]
$113,490 – double the pre-sale estimate – paid for a 1940 Packard Eight Convertible Victoria, a vehicle reminiscent of the “Golden Age of Hollywood” [lot 170]
$65,520 – tripling the estimate – paid for a 1936 Rolls-Royce 25/30 Touring from the LeMay Collection with phaeton body in two-tone grey livery [lot 19]
$64,350 paid for a 1964 Bentley S3 Continental Coupe, coachwork by H J Mulliner, Park Ward Ltd, one of only 312 Bentley S3 Continentals produced, only 76 bodied by Mulliner [lot 29]
$51,480 paid for a 1966 Pontiac GTO Convertible, a rare and desirable example [lot 127A]
$43,290 paid for a 1968 Chevrolet Corvette 427/390 Roadster [lot 47]
$42,120 paid for a 1929 Buick Series 121 Convertible from the LeMay Collection [lot 36]
For complete sale results, visit: www.bonhams.com/us.
[Source: Bonhams]
