The Mullin Collection: Gooding repeats the previous resounding success of 1421 Emerson Avenue.
04 May 2024 4 min read 9 images
Photo credit: Gooding
Oxnard, California. 1421 Emerson Avenue. This is where the Mullin Museum is located, which is the most important collection of French cars in the world or at least it used to be. On April 26 Peter Mullin's collection went up for auction at Gooding's.
1421 (spelled 14-21) Emerson Avenue is famous for collecting: Otis Chandler, editor of the Los Angeles Times, showed what used to be his museum and his magnificent collection that was dismembered in 2006 in an auction that has gone down in history. Holding the auction, as today for the Mullin collection, was Gooding himself. For those who did not experience it I can say that this auction was epic: An impressive $36 million were achieved (we are talking almost twenty years ago, when a Porsche Carrera GT was $300,000), setting a record for any single-day auction.
The cars that were offered appeared to be around twenty years overdue with regard to their glory days. Instead, the numbers turned out very differently. A few numbers to begin with: 115 lots were offered and of these 86 were cars (about thirty were motorcycles and automobilia), all of them were offered without reserve and thus all were sold. The estimate of $11,085,000 (referring to cars alone) was shattered and when the gavel came down on the last car, even Gooding's experts could not believe that on the calculator the total added up to $18,324,515. 165% over the estimate. One must also take into account that some of the most prized items in the patron's collection were not there: Out of these, four are known to have been donated to the Petersen Museum, but of the others there is still no trace. One could guess that they will be auctioned at Pebble Beach, but that is mere speculation.
Top lot of the auction was undoubtedly the 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Aravis Special Cabriolet. Of the four Aravis bodied by Gangloff, this was one of two made on a 57C base (thus with supercharger). Sold new to Maurice Trintignan (then a Bugatti team driver) it was even used by the driver in a race (the 1939 Grand Prix du Comminges), finishing 11th. In 1964 it crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the garage of Rudi van Daalen Wetters who kept it until his death when it was purchased by Mullin in 2002. The estimate of $2,500,000-3,500,000 (unreserved) placed it in pole position, but the prominent names and stunning bodywork sent it soaring to $6,605,000!
In reality, all 9 of the Bugattis offered went over the top, often selling for multiples of the estimate. This was also the case of the 1936 Bugatti Type 57 Ventoux. Names were important here too: In 1963 it was sold in France by John Shakespare to the Schlumpf brothers. John Shakespeare in the 1950s was one of the biggest Bugatti collectors (when they were still youngtimers) and his collection included both a Type 41 (better known as the “Royale”) and a Type 57SC, two diamonds in the firmament of Bugatti history. This Bugatti 57 Ventoux had been stationary for 60 years, completely in need of restoration, so the estimate of $200,000-250,000 was correct. The gavel, however, messed up the value because it went for $511,000, which is practically the price of a Bugatti 57 Ventoux (but in this case you will have to add a nice sum for restoration).
Other Bugattis were no less impressive: Two Bugatti 57 Galibiers to be restored, one 1935 bodied by Gangloff and one 1937 by Graber, went for $181,000, double the $80,000-120,000 estimate. A 1930 Bugatti Type 46 Semi-Profilée set a new world record at $1,105,000 (above the $700,000-900,000 estimate). Another Bugatti 57 Ventoux also from Schlumpf's “reserve” (and equally to be restored) even managed to exceed three times the $125,000-175,000 estimate when it sold for $472,500. Also bought by Mullin from the Schlumpf collection were two Type 40s. In this case the estimates seemed strategically low (but the restoration costs are imposing) and the $90,000-120,000 of the 1931 40A Roadster turned into $302,000, better still for the Gallé-bodied 40 Faux Cabriolet because its $50,000-75,000 represented merely a fraction of the sale price of $247,000.
The 1927 Bugatti Type 40 “Brake de Chasse” deserves a special mention. It was originally created as Gangloff's Conduite Inteieure but at the turn of the war it was converted into a “shooting brake”, admittedly almost a van. It eventually sold for $445,000.
Among the few lots that failed to reach the minimum estimate (but by a small margin) was the second most expensive lot, a 1933 Hispano-Suiza J12 Cabriolet with Van Vooren bodywork. Although the estimate of $2,500,000-3,500,000 was correct it sold for $2,310,000.
For the sake of argument, one must also speak out in favor of Gooding's experts because many of these cars had no reference in the marketplace (where do you find a Bugatti to restore now? How about ten?). Therefore, a couple of simpler lots that graced the sale attracted a lot of interest. There was a 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster and a 1956 Porsche 356 A Super Speedster. What were two Germans doing in the midst of so many prized French cars? If you went to look closer, the 300SL was even in the non-original color (originally created in a beautiful blue now it was silver with black interior) while the 356 did not even have the original engine.
So what is the reason? One theory could be that these two were among the first cars Mullin purchased in the early 1990s. He chose cars that were easily expendable at events and then became passionate about a specific field. In essence he did what many collectors do but with a few more millions. At this point the economic references are completely irrelevant: $1,105,000 for the Mercedes and $346,000 for the Porsche (they were estimated at $1,000,000-1,300,000 and $250,000-350,000), these were really in line with the market.
What would I have taken home? I have to admit that I got all googly-eyed over many lots. Besides the aforementioned Bugatti Type 40 Shooting Brake I would have liked a 1937 Wanderer W25K Roadster with tons of patina for $142,500, a Delaunay-Belleville 1A4 Landaulet from 1914 in perfect condition for $76,500, the maniacally restored 1973 Citroen HY78 Van in a champagne manufacturer's livery or even a Bugatti-designed train engine for $66,600. But in the end I would have wanted the 1932 Delage D8S Cabriolet. Also part of the cars purchased by Mullin in the Schlumpf reserve, it was bodied by a smaller name (Duvivier) but is none the less charming. Bought in 1965 it would need to be restored for any competition but in a world of super-restored cars it showed a soul. I would have bought it (sold at $236,000, the estimate was $125,000-175,000) and left it that way. And every now and then I would have gone into the garage just to look at it.
CLASSIC CAR MATCHER