A rare and splendid 1937 Indian Four 437 earned £95,450 ($134,409), about double its pre-sale estimated value, to lead H&H Classic’s auction held at the National Motorcycle Museum in the UK.
The Indian was part of a strong £1.2 million ($1.69 million) result, including auction fees, for the June 9 auction, with 83 percent of the mostly vintage bikes going to new homes.
The top-selling Indian had been in current ownership since 1967, when the seller’s wife presented it to him as a gift. Always registered in the UK, the bike was completely restored in 1983 by marque specialist Bill Healing.
Other significant sales at the British auction included:
• A 1914 Sparkbrook Vee Twin, said to be the only one from 1914 known to have survived, sold for £43,700 ($61,537), nearly double its estimated value.
• A 1949 Velocette MK8 KTT, one of Britain’s most iconic and successful racing motorcycles and among the handful built by Rod Coleman, sold for £39,100 ($55,059).
• A 1920 Nut Model TT, owned and restored by a Nut specialist who’s had the bike since 1962, that sold for £33,350 ($46,962), far above its estimated value.
One of the more-unusual auction sales was that of a 1951 Vespa Douglas scooter, in rough condition, that sold for a record $10,995 ($15,384).
“The scooter is one of the earliest Vespas made in Britain under license to the Italian parent company,” according to an H&H news release. “It is a 125cc early Douglas Vespa rod type 125, which remarkably has had just one owner since 1955. He used the scooter to tour Scandinavia in 1955.
“The model manufactured in the UK was the classic ‘Faro Basso’ shape but with the headlamp on the leg shields (rather than front fender) to comply with local regulations and still using the rod-type gearchange system being replaced by cables on the Italian-produced versions.”
H&H Classics’ next bike sale will be held October 27 at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham.
For more information, visit the H&H website.
