August Auctions: Monthly Highlights from the Block

Apparently, nobody told the collectors descending on Monterey Car Week that August is a quiet month in the auction world. Gavels hammered down on some spectacular results, including new records for both British and American cars. Elsewhere, bidders found cause to compete for good things in smaller packages, from an original Casablanca six-sheet to an Honus Wagner baseball card to Estelle Getty’s thrift-store handbag.

Here are some of Galerie’s auction highlights for the month of August.

1996 McLaren F1 GTR, $34.655 million | RM Sotheby’s

This scarlet-and-yellow McLaren F1 GTR is the only example with a factory livery and has become both the most valuable McLaren F1 and the most valuable British car ever sold at auction. It was one of just two Short-Tail factory prototypes and the first of nine F1 GTRs built to 1996 specification. It was used in testing at Le Mans before McLaren converted it for road use, and was previously owned by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason.

Clark Gable’s Duesenberg, $9.08 million | RM Sotheby’s

Clark Gable did not merely purchase a 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Convertible Coupe: he immediately started making it more Clark Gable. The It Happened One Night and Gone With The Wind star worked alongside designer W. Everett Miller, sketching the changes he wanted. The resulting alterations extended the hoodline, more sharply angled the windshield, and added rear fender skirts, among other details. Gable later drove the car while courting Carole Lombard.

1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, $42.905 million | Gooding Christie’s

The McLaren was remarkable enough, but Monterey also had an American car built for an altogether different purpose. One of only six Cobra Daytona Coupes created to challenge Ferrari’s 250 GTO, the Peter Brock–designed racer helped Shelby American secure the 1965 FIA GT Championship. It exceeded the previous $22 million high-water mark for an American car by more than $20 million.

Estelle Getty’s Golden Girls handbag, $192,000 | Julien’s Auctions

Estelle Getty carried this woven purse as Sophia Petrillo throughout all seven seasons of The Golden Girls. Getty had picked it up from a thrift store before filming began. Julien’s estimated it at $10,000 to $15,000. On August 12, it sold for nearly 13 times its high estimate.

1909–11 T206 Honus Wagner baseball card, $5.856 million | Heritage Auctions

A tiny piece of cardboard from 1909 produced one of the month’s jaw-droppers. Honus Wagner baseball cards have been notoriously rare for so long that it was the subject of a joke in the 1942 Lou Gehrig biopic The Pride of the Yankees. The still more elusive T206 is a holy grail among collectors. One examples is the possible crown jewel of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s baseball card collection. The one that sold at Heritage last month is one of but three known examples carrying the Piedmont advertising back. Out of the other two, one currently belongs to Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick. The whereabouts of the third are presently unknown.

Original 1942 Casablanca Six-Sheet Poster, $187,500 | Heritage Auctions

Movie posters were never supposed to last forever. Theaters pasted them onto walls, cut them apart for displays, covered them with the next advertisement, or discarded them outright. That makes the survival of this original-release Casablanca poster remarkable before even getting to Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Only a handful are known to survive.

And beyond that, August was simply…August. It’s not that human beings have any reason to cease coveting, competing for, or taking joy in procuring beautiful and significant objects based on a mere calendar turn. The Northern Hemisphere is hot and vacation-prone, the Southern Hemisphere is significantly less populous than the North, and the auction world may as well have a quiet month. August is August. November will contain multitudes.