There's a piece today in my local paper about a man I knew who died much too young earlier this year, leaving most of his estate to Poole Hospital, a new radiotherapy unit currently being built is to be named after him. Robert is pictured at the head of the article with his friend Jay Leno, to whom Robert had just sold his collection of Brough Superior motorcycles for several millions, even at their current valuation, that must have been quite a lot of bikes. Most of the rest is being sold by auctioneers Bonhams later this month, there's a link below, and it's a truly astonishing collection running to over 60 pages, more Leica cameras & lenses than I've ever seen together, seemingly endless other motorbikes, and a vast collection of things like Lalique glass figures, Rolex watches, and all kinds of motoring and other memorabilia and lots of interesting stuff, that must have needed a sizeable warehouse to store it all.
http://www.bonhams.c...10&w0=list&m0=0
I'd be happy with just the Nikon rangefinder items, oh, and the George Daniels watches, maybe one of the rarer Rolexes as well, chuck in an AC and that Bugatti while you're at it.
Robert used to own the local Nikon Professional dealership, a smallish shop in Bournemouth Road Poole, which was how we met, I still have Nikons that he sold me from there. They stocked a huge range of other photo stuff as well, proper darkroom equipment and the like, as well as lots of Leica, Hasselblads and other top range stuff. He later moved to a factory unit on a nearby estate, and obviously expanded greatly after that. I knew he was doing OK, but I never guessed at anything like this.
That Bonhams link is worth exploring, though some of the estimates seem ridiculously low to me. Fortunately, I'll be out of the Country when the auction is held, or I might be tempted. The newspaper says that the hospital is expected to receive £10 million, but he's already passed on about £4 million to enable work to start, and there's obviously a fair bit more to come. Who would have guessed that flogging cameras could be so profitable?
Edit - just added the local newspaper article. Tony Odseybod is absolutely right, some of the Leica items should reach double or more than the Bonham's estimates, or more accurately wild guesses.
http://www.bournemou...iotherapy_unit/
Edited by kayemod, 02 September 2016 - 14:33.
