Well, by the end of auction viewing it seemed pretty obvious that we were in for a successful sale.  The effort invested by the compact crew of a dozen or so full-time Bonhams & Butterfields staff, plus the wildly enthusiastic, go-get-it local part-timers and grizzled old consultants like myself (flown in from London for the weekend), was paying off.  We had between us fielded hundreds of enquiries about the specific history of this Talbot-Lago, or that Grahame-engined Indy car, or the black CanAm Shadow, or the red GT40.  The baby “Inspector Clouseau” type Autobianchi had raised a huge laugh — especially (I can’t think why) when I shoehorned myself into it during the set-up night and puttered it rapidly around the auction marquee… 

Sale morning.  The event commences with our ever popular automobilia section.  Books, journals, mascots, signs, even traffic signals.  Amazing interest.  The section alone grosses $485,936, with four racing trophies won by the great Tazio Nuvolari, the legendary Italian Champion of the 1920s and '30s, fetching $45,630.  An iron 1909 Rolls-Royce weather vane achieves $14,404; an enamel 'Weber Carburettors' advertising sign $1,872; and an original painting of the 1907 Glidden Tour by America's leading automotive artist Peter Helck, $29,250. Top mascot price for a 1925 Rene Lalique glass was no less than $11,700.

Meanwhile, in the back office, feverish staff members finalize the preparations for the afternoon’s all-important car sale. Last-minute ’phone calls to vendors agree final requirements.  Numbers are double-checked to enable those staff manning the telephone bidding lines to contact the right bidder, at the right time.  The auctioneer is B&B’s gravel-voiced CEO, Malcolm Barber.  He scans the cue notes I have scripted for him to introduce each car, highlighting its attractions.  Outside each end of the sale marquee the cars themselves are ranged like Navy planes on an aircraft carrier’s deck, our drivers poised for each grand entry onto the sale ramp.  Typically quiet and diffident race car specialist Tom Black — renowned for his abilities to persuade anything to run, from an 1890s veteran to the thunderous 800-horsepower CanAm Shadow — dons his Ray-Bans after fine-tuning one final fuel-injection unit.