A good time to buy?
COVID-19 confined most of us to barracks but there could be a flip side, says Roger Field. Having conserved the cash, one could now be in the position to bag an auction bargain
IT’S August and the starting gun has fired – we hope and pray – for game shooting. And for gun auctions. First out of the trap on 31 August is Gavin Gardiner’s Fine Modern and Vintage Guns extravaganza up at the Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire, COVID-19 and the Blessed Nicola Sturgeon permitting. If either type of irritant tells Gardiner he isn’t welcome north of the Border he’ll hold it as an online auction from his premises in Sussex. He’s really hoping it’s the former, however, as he loves his annual foray to Scotland.
Gardiner has been having a funny old time during the lockdown. As reported last month, his 22 April ‘virtual’ sale of guns went very well indeed, especially for the less costly items, with bored bidders only too happy to spend the day hunkered down, avoiding their other halves, whilst hitting their ‘Buy Now’ buttons. His problem then became one of gathering more kit for the August auction as he, and everybody else, was not permitted to travel.
However, that restriction was lifted on 1 June and Gardiner and his fellow auctioneers were able to hit the road to view and gather in goodies. As he told me, “The phone hasn’t stopped since.” Then, on 15 June, a further easing meant that buyers and sellers could visit his office to show him guns and view what he has to offer. He (and Holts) have a number of regional ‘Show me your guns’ viewing days scheduled: check their websites for details.
This led me straight to the key question: did this COVID-19 mash-up and the havoc it may, or may not, cause the forthcoming shooting season mean that he would be insisting on lower reserves and estimates? Hoping for the answer, “Yes” – I’m in the market for a nice old, great value, English gun – I got an emphatic, “No”. He doesn’t believe this pandemic will make any difference to the price of old guns at auction and he will not be recommending lower reserves. Because, in his opinion, the gun market has fallen just about as low as it will go, short of more bad news on the subject of steel shot, or some other such.
Gardiner says the market for English sideby-sides has dropped by about 40% in the
past 10 years. So a good, circa £40,000 pair of guns would now be estimated at £20,000 to £25,000. Conversely, 20 years ago a new Purdey cost about £34,000; it now costs about £134,000. A fourfold increase. But a classic Purdey, which used to be about £15,000, is now £10,000. Bonkers.
What’s more, the market has changed. Ten-plus years ago Gardiner reckoned most of his buyers bought those lovely old guns to use in the field. Now, he reckons, most keen shots use shiny new over-and-unders. The small percentage that still seek out good old side-by-sides do so as much to collect them and just have them as shoot them. And these people will buy them regardless of the deprivations of COVID-19. Hence keeping his pricing levels where they are and waiting to see whether he is calling it right.
Early submissions to his Gleneagles sale include a unique 12-bore Giles Whittome ‘The Paragon Pinless’ round body, with double triggers (the front trigger has the option of operating as a non-selective single trigger), self-opening ejector; 28in damascus barrels; 23∕4in (think steel loads) chambers and a 16in stock. The gun was built in 1982 as a presentation piece and engraved by the Italian master Sabatti. The damascus barrels were sourced from original unfinished tubes from the workshop of Thomas Bland and it was actioned by Brian Gibbs, formerly of Holland & Holland. The gun gleams in its maker’s rosewood presentation case, with brass stringing and ebony sealing strips. It has a modest estimate, for what it is, of £18,000 to £24,000, although some might think it a trifle garish. Carry this on a muddy November day in Warwickshire and you had better hit your birds, or there could be some serious taking of the Michael.
Or how about an ‘exceptional’ condition Purdey 12-bore, self-opening, sidelock ejector with two pairs of barrels – 26in and 28in – 14¾in stock, built in 1922 (a golden gunmaking year), retaining much of its original finish, in its maker’s case. It is being sold to benefit the Gunmakers’ Company Charitable Trust, which includes a bursary scheme for those entering the trade. If we don’t educate a new generation these fast-disappearing skills will be lost and, as our fine old guns break, we risk ending up with mass-produced ‘fire and throw away when they go wrong’ guns. It is estimated at a juicy sounding £12,000 to £18,000 although, he says, in these barrel-length-obsessed days, were they 28in and 30in he could probably add another 20% to that estimate.
We’ve all had plenty of time to ponder recently and I got to pondering Aston Martins.
I’ve always wanted one and not just because James Bond drives one. They are just, well, quintessentially and muscularly British. But now? I wonder if there is much point to one any longer, or a Ferrari, or a Lambo, a Mazzer, or a Bentley for that matter. True petrol heads, I gather, like to meet up, raise bonnets, sniff each other’s oil and confer. At length. That’s not me. I just think it’s cool to get from A to B in a certain style. But where will I be going any time soon that an Aston will enhance the experience? So, what’s the point? Bonhams trumpeted the success of its 30 May online motoring auction but checking the estimates against the results, many cars sold under the bottom estimate; some well under.
The headline star, a gorgeous – I would love one – 1966 Aston Martin DB6, with 83,702 on the clock, was hammered down for £130,000, way under its £175,000 lower estimate. Another absolute beauty – just perfect for ripping along to the local farm shop (forget supermarkets in these virusridden days) – was the red, 1954 Jaguar XK120, open-topped, aluminium-bodied Roadster. Hammering the loud pedal of this racer on a sunny day as the wind tries to remove your hair surgically would bring a smile to the face of any reader of this fine magazine. However, it, too, fell well short of its £80,000 to £100,000 estimate, selling for £62,000. Most of the modern Astons didn’t find buyers.
That said, I wonder if the sellers who took the hit and the lower prices will not prove to be the clever ones. What price these wonderful cars in a year’s time if COVID-19 wrecks the social, fun side of life as we once knew it? The rich will always want the