Rare wartime tractor fetches £75k at auction

A fleet of "some of the rarest" wartime and vintage tractors fetched hundreds of thousands of pounds after going under the hammer.

The vast collection, amassed by the late machinery enthusiast, Roger Desborough, was sold during an auction held at Church Farm in Wenhaston, Suffolk.

Hosted by auctioneers Cheffins, the sale comprised of more than 200 lots and attracted more than 300 bidders, with seven items fetching in the region of £265,000.

The highlight sale was the 1917 Holt 75, one of only four examples known to exist in the UK, which sold for £75,040 to a Belgian collector.

"The auction presented some of the rarest British pre-war tractors as well as iconic American machines," said Bill King, chairman at Cheffins.

Elsewhere in the auction, a 1919 Saunderson Model G, sold for £46,096, a 1963 Doe Triple-D for £43,942, and a 1917 Rumely Oil Pull for £34,304.

Mr Desborough's 1919 Overtime Model N, meanwhile, one of the oldest examples of the "important American tractor" in existence in the UK, fetched £37,520.

One of the more unusual lots on offer was a Howitzer artillery field gun, which sold for £16,080, while a 1960s Massey Ferguson 35X Multi-Power tractor made £12,864.

"While the headline lots all achieved well within their pre-sale estimates, we also saw a number of the classic tractors sell for some incredible prices," added Mr King.

The sale attracted "a huge amount of interest", with bids being made from the UK and countries around the world, including the Netherlands, the USA, Belgium and Ireland.

Mr King said the auction's success was testament to "Roger Desborough's reputation as one of the leading vintage tractor collectors in the country".

"This sale reaffirmed that the collectors of vintage tractors are still going strong and looking for rare British and American examples, and particularly those which have been as meticulously cared for as those which we offered at this sale," he said.

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