SOLD! For £2,500

Monday 23 September 2024

Someone has snapped up a bargain with Dame Sybil Hathaway's carriage selling at auction for less than its estimated value.

When it was posted for sale online through Bailiwick Auctions, it had an estimated value of £3000-£4000.

When the bidding closed last night, the final bid was £2,500.

Pictured: The carriage was sold for £2,500 after the final bid met the reserve price agreed between the vendor and the auctioneer.

Dame Sybil is understood to have used at least three different carriages towards the end of her life, as she continued living in Sark and needed assistance moving around the island.

The carriage sold at auction this weekend was a battery-operated carriage which met Sark's strict laws banning motorised vehicles.

This carriage was bought by Guernsey jeweller and collector Michael Paint, after the Dame's death in 1974.

Mr Paint put the carriage on display in a motor museum that used to be in La Charroterie, before loaning it to the Guernsey Museum in 1982.

The carriage remained in the possession of the Museum until it was sold following Mr Paint's death.

The auctioneer said that the carriage's current owner has "maintained its highly original condition". It was stated that an inspection carried out by the current owner "confirmed that the carriage was in sound condition and could easily be recommissioned and put to use if desired".

Pictured top: Dame Sybil Hathaway's former carriage. Main image from Bailiwick Auctions with (inset) Dame Sybil Hathaway.