Laidlaw Auction Results 7 December 2018

Thanks for all your help Trolly Aux, I watched the auction live on the internet and it was really interesting to see. Managed to walk away with Lot 715 which was the Perspex glass, now the fun bit starts of trying to identify it!

Wyvernfan#49 quote

9th December 2018, 10:10

With some of the prices realised I can only presume that the provenance attached to them was impeccable.

Err, no.

When I owned that ‘Do17 seat with the BoB pedigree’ back in 1973 it was thought to have come from a Ju88 and was gifted to me by a chap who worked at Cranfield and was surplus to the structures department.

I traded it with Ken Anscombe for the severed tail fin of Mk 22 Spitfire PK665 with squadron badge insignia.

If the forum search engine would only work, the seat was discussed on a dedicated post.

Mark

Just noticed they actually advertised the sale in the back of Flypast with a really poor tiny description of what was being sold and a largish picture of some guy with a beard in somewhere like a library staring at some inane object….. nothing like slapping on a big picture of the Merlin etc and getting some interest, the largest writing on the ad was LAIDLAW’S.

The cuttleworth Hurri grip was a bargain. I can only think the relic grips had history that was not shown? Spade grips, spade grips everywhere but none for Tony! Worcs, the lucky fellow who got the Hurri grip from CW might be a lucky av heritage fan and keep it? Several years ago, I got a 109 grip for £350 and got chased down by a guy who offered me £4.5k for it….I said no as I wanted the grip.

nice bit Blenheim elevator too..not so bad 260

The Hurricane grip was a good deal at £950 for an early grip, seen them make £2500, give it few days and that’s what it will be for sale for I guess.

Another thought has occurred to me. Most of the substantial aeronautical items are stated to be at a private location in Kent and thus were not available for viewing at the auctioneer’s premises in Cumbria. However I failed to find any reference, on the auctioneer’s website, to there being facilities for potential bidders to view these items in Kent. Thus is one to assume that those who bid many thousands of pounds to acquire these items did so simply by reference to what they could see in the online photographs? If so, I find that surprising. If I was going to pay such large sums of money I’d have wanted – nay, insisted – on being allowed the facility to inspect these items pre-sale.

Isn’t it standard auctioneer’s practice these days to set guide prices (they seem to prefer this term to ‘estimates’) which are merely ‘come ons’, i.e. designed to encourage potential bidders who consequently think that they are going to get the item ‘for a song’, whereas the auctioneers know that the true value, and thus likely hammer price, is much going to be much higher. The object of these ‘come on’ guide prices is, firstly, to avoid potential bidders walking away pre-sale, which they might do if realistic guide prices were stated, and, secondly, to encourage bidders to put in low bids and then raise these beyond what, realistically, they might be able to afford to pay. In this manner the auctioneer gets the maximum competition between bidders and thus the highest hammer price.

For those who may like to view all the results

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/a…h=False&page=6

there were a few large items in the pictures but not 54k worth visible

There was at least one Spit main spar peeking out, and another instrument panel. Lazy cataloguing though. List half of it in minute detail, then give up and sell the rest as a single lot.

There must have been something in the £41500 lot that the pictures wasn’t showing, Spitfire data plates would command figures like that, not boards with molten alloy and perspex on them, probably a few restorations on those boards

Blimey, I bet the auctioneers are on cloud nine at the results so far as they are wildly over their estimates. I do hope some people on here got something. I bet we start seeing some items appearing on eBay from that large collection.

£41500 + £12 450 premium, totally nuts

The Vat and premium and online bid costs equated to about +1/3 on “hammer price”. So, £1000 win costs about £1,330 ish.

V

TBH, virtually all the estimates were wildly (low) wrong. The only estimates that were remotely close were for “regular” items like, common swords or daggers etc. The aircraft relics that I was interested in went for fairly high prices relative to estimate. My favourite lot went for 40X the estimate! Unfortunately, the Auctioneer was punch-drunk at the end, he had been there non-stop for nearly 8 hours! I also could not find any way to view the off-site aviation lots, other than the scant photo’s. I guess that those who knew the collection involved would have quite an advantage. Did anyone spot the relic DB601 crash engine with DB600 cylinderblocks?

V

Thanks for the updates matey

Relic DB601 Bf109 estimated 300 to 500

Sold £2600.00

P47 relic P&W R2800 £170.00

Hispano Suiza V8 Aero Engine £5600