A 1979 County 1474 ‘Short Nose’ tractor sold for £160,800 at the second Cheffins collective vintage sale of 2022 on 23rd July. Consigned from Devon, the well-presented example was sold to a UK-based private collector.
Other highlights amongst the other 190 tractors on offer at the Cheffins sale ground included a 1989 Ford 7810 Silver Jubilee, which sold for £45,560; a 1973 David Brown 996 which sold for £18,760 and a Mailam Dexta crawler tractor which sold for £15,008.
Leading the 40-lot strong motorcycle section was a 1927 ES2 Norton amateur TT race bicycle. This is the first ever ES2 model to have been mentioned in Norton records and has been consigned from a private collection in Hertfordshire. It was sold for £32,880 to another Hertfordshire based collector. Also, amongst the motorcycles, was a 1967 Velocette Thruxton, in need of full restoration, which sold for £13,152, closely followed by a 1928 490cc Norton CS1 project motorbike, which made £12,056
The Roger Austin collection of fairground memorabilia, which included over 100 lots of historic gallopers, figures, clowns, rounding boards, signs and various other vintage fairground items was sold in its entirety, with many of the lots making well over their presale estimates. Highlights from the collection include, a Toy Town Fire Service self-propelled midget fire engine, which made £7,840, two Austin J40 pedal cars, which made £2,800 and £2,688 respectively and £3,136 for a full-size double adult wooden galloper horse.
Also on offer was a selection of rare automobilia items, the most valuable of which was a Shell glass fuel pump globe which sold for £2,576.
Oliver Godfrey, Head of the Machinery Department at Cheffins says: “This was a fantastic sale, with a really varied catalogue. Whilst the County didn’t break the record price of over £200,000 which we saw in April, it is still a hell of a lot of money for a classic tractor. In general, the July sale tends to be one of our quieter auctions, but the prices achieved on the day go to prove the buoyancy of the classic tractor market which continues to see robust price growth year-on-year. In addition, there were some other strong prices achieved in other sections of the sale, with the motorbikes seeing consistent demand, especially for restoration projects, and the Roger Austin collection being fully sold out. The July sale also saw the launch of our new podcast, ‘Auction Torque’, where we document the auction and give listeners behind-the-scenes information on what goes on at the sale ground on sale day.”
Oliver Godfrey continues: “The next vintage sale will take place in Harrogate in August at the Great Yorkshire Showground, and we are still consigning items for that auction. So, if you have a classic tractor, car, commercial or a motorbike to sell, please do get in touch with us.”
The next collective sale will take place on Saturday 20th August, at The Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate. For more information, please visit www.cheffins.co.uk, or call Cheffins auctioneers on 01353 777767.