London, 24 - 29 June 2010
The inaugural Masterpiece London event was held at the former
Chelsea Barracks, situated a short distance from Sloane Square
in London SW1. The gathering is not a car event, but a high end
luxury lifestyle fair featuring top names from the respective fields.
The range of items on display and for sale was truly amazing,
some of which one would normally only expect to see in
museums. How about a 4th Century BC Greek marble bust, or a
Dragon Obelisk Clock, ex Belgian Royal Family, circa 1777, plus
a spectacular array of beautiful antique furniture, old armour,
swords, guns, to a truly amazing new timepiece called the
Chronophage, created by John C Taylor. This is 2.91m in height
with a 1.54m diameter gold plated dial surmounted by a
mechanically actuated grasshopper, a truly amazing piece of
engineering of which only twelve examples will be offered for sale,
with an additional 3 artist’s proofs.
The fine automobile field was represented by Fiskens and Coys,
the latter having a pair of Aston Martins, a DB3S sports racing
model and a DB5 GT car, together with a Ferrari 250 GT S1 Pinin
Farina cabriolet. Fiskens showed a stunning Zagato bodied 1934
Alfa Romeo 8C 2300, chassis # 2311228, fresh from restoration
by Cognolato in Italy, and 1927 Red Label Bentley, still with its
original Vanden Plas fabric body. This car was famously featured
in the British film “The Fast Lady”, in which it was driven by
British actor Leslie Phillips, who was reunited with her on the
preview day of the show. The film also saw the big screen debut
of a young lady who would go on to achieve international stardom,
Julie Christie.
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