An English country auction: RM Sotheby's visits Cliveden House

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Constructed in neat, ordered layers at the end of an immaculate emerald lawn, the proud and prosperous façade of Cliveden House rises from the Chiltern Hills as a glorious tribute to the beauty and splendour of the Italian Renaissance. Completed in 1851 for the Duke of Sutherland, but more famously occupied between 1893 and 1966 by the Viscounts Astor, the palatial country pile stands out as one of the crowning glories of Charles Barry's distinguished career, and with its opulent interior notably including a French Rococo dining room, it belongs very much to the first rank of English stately homes.

Always worth a visit, especially in summer, we would make a particular recommendation to head there on June 12th, when it will host an RM Sotheby's auction at which numerous vintage and thoroughbred motor cars are set to pass under the hammer.

Bentleys galore...

There is no location better-suited to the plethora of pre-war Rolls-Royces and Bentleys which are among the highlights of the catalogue. To our eyes, the very finest consignment is the 1929 Bentley 6½-Litre sedanca de ville by H. J. Mulliner (£400,000-500,000). The fact that it's a 6½-Litre, one of the rarest and most impressive of the Cricklewood-era Bentleys, would make it a very desirable machine even if it were a wreck, or heavily compromised through the loss of history or originality, but it is nothing of the sort; instead, it is an exceptional survivor which retains its outstanding, original and unique sedanca body, and comes with excellent provenance as well. Displayed at the 1929 Olympia Motor Exhibition and subsequently featured in that year's Motor Show edition of The Autocar, it was sold viâ H. M. Bentley & Co. (run by W. O. Bentley's brother) to John Davie of Northwood, Middlesex. Ownership was transferred in 1935 to the Rt. Hon. Major F. Craven, and after being laid up during the war it was bought for £50 in 1952 by J. B. Sibly, who enjoyed it at Bentley Drivers' Club events until 1957. Besides its original bodywork, which includes a fitted drinks cabinet, it also appears with its matching-numbers engine. Having received much in the way of sympathetic refurbishment, it presents exactly as a vintage Bentley should and serves as an exemplar for how all vintage cars ought to be preserved and maintained.

...and Rolls-Royces, too

Moving from Cricklewood to Derby, we also find in the catalogue a 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom I (£90,000-120,000), which was originally a landaulet by Langütt et Cie but rebodied in the 1970s in the style of 17EX, the experimental Jarvis-bodied torpedo, a 1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II tourer (£90,000-120,000) and 1939 Bentley 4¼-Litre sedanca coupé (£80,000-140,000, no reserve). The Phantom, chassis 14MY, was originally a Barker saloon sold to Captain John Murray Cobbold of Suffolk, a brewery heir and loyal Rolls-Royce customer, and left his ownership viâ the London dealership of Paddon Bros. in 1938. Its present body is a replica of a Carlton design. The Bentley, chassis B185MX, was owned from June 8th, 1939, to December, 1947, by R. P. Silcock of Lancashire, but intriguingly it landed in France in later years, where it was rebodied in imitation of the very sleek sedanca coupé bodies which Chapron constructed for Rolls-Royce Phantoms. The best of the bunch, however, since it retains its original and very elegant H. J. Mulliner faux cabriolet body, is the 1933 Rolls-Royce 20/25 (£30,000-50,000, no reserve). Its curvaceous coachwork could very easily be mistaken for the work of a fashionable Parisian carrossier.

Anyone with a penchant for Edwardian cars or steamers will be delighted by the inclusion of a 1908 Stanley Model K Semi-Racer (£70,000-90,000). Although not an original car as such—surviving factory-built Semi-Racers are as rare as hen's teeth—a kit of original parts, plus a new boiler by the respected Bourdon Boiler Works, was amassed in the early 2000s by a Tennessee enthusiast. When he died, the kit was shipped to British Stanley specialist John Goold & Sons, and completed in 2006, being issued with the serial number 4065.

Among the various high-end delights, it is pleasing, too, to see a couple of Austin Sevens in the mix, a 1924 Chummy and 1930 box saloon (both £6,000-9,000, no reserve). Both are in charming condition, looking like mellowed older restorations. Considering it's such an early "scoop scuttle" model, the Chummy would be an especially good buy for the estimate.

The full catalogue may be viewed here.

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