For Immediate Release 4 November 2004 Contact: Matthew Paton 020 7389 2965
[email protected] GOLDEN ERA OF MOTOR RACING AT CHRISTIE’S IN DECEMBER A photograph from the Robert Fellowes Archive Exceptional Motor Cars & Automobilia Tuesday, 7 December 2004 at 6pm London – Christie’s International Motor Cars is pleased to announce the final sale of 2004 which will take place in the Jack Barclay Showroom, London, on 7 December and will offer a selection of evocative and magical items from the Golden Age of motoring. Leading the sale are two outstanding lots. The Robert Fellowes Photographic Archive, which includes more than 1750 negatives of pre-war Grand Prix footage, is a unique record charting the rise of the Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Team during the 1930s (estimate: £75,000-100,000) and is sold with copyright. A 1936 Delahaye 135S Two Seater Sports (estimate: £280,000-320,000) driven by René Le Bègue and Kaye Don in the 1936 Donington Grand Prix also highlights the sale. In 1931, Robert Fellowes began to travel Europe and follow the European Grand Prix calendar. There were no restrictions around the racetrack at this time, and he was able to capture images from the most precarious and inventive of positions, always looking for the most illustrative of angles. Fellowes was a friend of Dick Seaman, an English racing driver who drove for Mercedes-Benz in the mid to late 1930s, and as a result, he gained an inside view of the rise of the infamous Mercedes-Benz team during the pre-war years.