Trailblazing tractors snapped up
Trailblazing tractors snapped up
By Mike Williams
A STUNNING sale – that was the verdict after the Frank Smith collection of vintage tractors and equipment went under the hammer with prices reaching £20,000.
Frank Smith was a Lincolnshire farmer who started collecting vintage tractors in the 1950s when they were often valued for their scrap metal content rather than their historical interest.
He built up one of the finest collections in the country, but 58 of them were sold in the 1980s to form the nucleus of the Science Museum collection.
The rest of the collection, including some of Franks favourites, were auctioned at Spalding, Lincs, following his death last year. An estimated 1000 people attended the sale, attracted by the rare opportunity to buy tractors from the pre-1920 period.
"It was a stunning sale and we are absolutely delighted," said Bill King of Cheffins, the Cambridge-based auctioneers.
"Tractors of this quality rarely come on to the market, and the fact that these were from the Frank Smith collection must have helped the prices.
"There was very strong interest from Ireland, but the sale also attracted buyers from France and Belgium."
The top priced tractor was a 1919 Overtime version of an American built Waterloo Boy Model R, which sold for £20,000. The Waterloo Boy was the predecessor of the John Deere tractor range, and the power output of the Model R was a modest 12hp at the drawbar and 24hp at the belt pulley.
The Waterloo Boy price was almost matched by the £19,500 winning bid for a 1919 Fiat Model 702, bought on behalf of an Irish buyer for double the auctioneers estimate.
Oldest tractor
Oldest tractor in the sale was a 1916 Saunderson Universal G which sold for £19,000.
It was built at Elstow, Bedford, and the original sale document shows it was invoiced to a farm at Wyverstone, Suffolk for £510.
Other big prices included £10,000 for a 1919 International Harvester Junior, a contractors version of a 1939 Marshall 12-20 Model M fetched £11,400 – possibly a record for a single-cylinder Marshall, and a French built version of a 1925 Austin sold for £5000. *
A top price of £20,000 was paid for this 1919 Overtime tractor.