Automobilia enthusiasts expected to gear up as Harrogate collection drives interest

Morphets Collectors’ Sale, on Thursday, August 25, includes a wealth of vintage items, from early Lucas speedometers and Wilmot Breeden calormeters to the kind of French-made Phare Marchal headlights beloved of James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

In his 1955 novel Moonraker, Fleming writes of Bond switching on the headlights on his Bentley as he drives to the rocket launch site: “Once through the trees the car was running over a flat concrete apron the limits of which, in the bad light, were out of range even of the huge twin beams of his Marchal headlamps.”

A pair of of Marchal Strilux headlights, pictured, commonly found on Bugatti, Bentley, Delahaye and others will be offered with an estimate of £200 - £220.

Also in the sale is an extensive collection of rare 78rpm and vinyl recordings which brings together the likes of Stanley Holloway, Enrico Caruso, the LSO, Shirley Bassey, Fred Astaire, George Formby, Sergei Rachmaninov and Wurlitzer phenomenon Reginald Dixon. All from the private collection of a late Harrogate musician the collection had been built up over many years. We also have a selection of mid 20th century audio equipment, including Bang and Olufsen and Bose, to play your new acquisitions on!

Original film posters are always popular and examples advertising Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Dracula and For a Few Dollars More will all be included in the sale.

There are also a number of car racing posters including one from 1969 for the Martini International at Silverstone, pictured.

The sale also includes a collection of Victorian and later printed tins including an example modelled as a display cabinet full of china and curiosities for Huntley and Palmer estimated at £120-150. There are also early printed tins for dispending small chocolate bars and tea cannisters.

The sale, which is being held at 11am on Thursday 25th August, also includes a good stamp section, die cast models, ephemera, rare Goss crested china, militaria, guitars, fishing tackle and much more. The sale is on view in Morphets saleroom on Albert Street Harrogate on Wednesday 24th at 2pm-6pm and morning of sale from 9am. Please contact Morphets for further information on 01423 530030.

lso in the sale is a private collection of Goss crested china from the Estate of a private, Kent-based collector. William Henry Goss set up his first pottery in Stoke on Trent in 1858 at the age of 25 and began by making Parian ware porcelain busts and ornaments.

In 1883 his son Adolphus joined the business. He noted how the working classes were now able to travel further due to the expanding train network and had more time and disposable income than ever before. The Goss’s are duly credited with the idea of making souvenir ware and they began producing white glazed porcelain souvenirs of Roman and Greek antiquities and tiny replicas of local monuments applied with the crests and names of seaside resorts.

Goss crested ware was immensely popular at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

• The Collectors’ Sale will be held at Morphets’ saleroom in Harrogate from 11am on Thursday, August 25.