InstGRAM Report: The Wallis C Bird 1962 Auction Brochure for the “Car Auction of the Century”
The 1962 automotive auction brochure for the estate of Wallis C Bird has been rediscovered, showcased here in its entirety as well as updated information on where the cars are today.
This article would not be possible without the help of Steve Krask, who recently rediscovered the auction brochure after looking for it six years. Steve Krask's grandfather and Winnie Bird's nephew Ben Berdan maintained the Bird collection at the Farnesworth Estate.
The wait was worth it, because we now get to share what each of the vehicles that got sold off in this famous automotive auction that was called a “Car Auction of the Century” by those who attended in 1962.
By Gram Spina
Ben Berdan, Steve Krask's grandfather and Winnie Bird's nephew, who maintained the Bird collection.
Ethel Berdan, Steve Krask's grandmother, on a ride in front of the Bird garage.
The garage is still standing today on Planting Fields Road in Oyster Bay.
Before we get started on the auction brochure, I would like to mention that we have published articles in the past discussing Wallis C. Bird and the significance of his iconic collection of pre-WWII automobiles. See our previous articles about Bird and his car collection — from his racing Bugatti's to his Duesenberg's — here.
The auction was advertised by word of mouth and through a few small local newspapers in the Brookville, Long Island, New York area. About 2,000 people were in attendance, but there were only a few automobile collectors in the crowd. Most spectators were simply on hand to witness this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Here is the cover page for the 1962 automotive auction featuring the cars from the estate of Marjorie Winifred Bird, who inherited her husband’s collection when he died in 1940. After Marjorie’s death (without a will) in 1961 in Lausanne, Switzerland — the estate, including the car collection — was put up for auction. Interestingly, both Marjorie and her husband suffered untimely deaths. Wallis crashed his plane flying upstate and Marjorie was poisoned and killed by a con man suitor who passed himself off as a prince; he and an accomplice were later convicted of her murder.
As you can see, the first page of the auction catalog shows some truly iconic cars; almost all of the cars descriptions include the engine serial numbers.
We have a deep dive article that focuses on the top nine cars sold during this auction, including the stories of how Wallis C. Bird acquired these cars; click here to read that article.
This article specifically features each car that we have photographs of from the 1962 auction. I am including information about the sale price and where they are today, if it is publicly available.
1930 Duesenberg Model J Beverly
Sold to Jacques C. Tunick of Stamford, Connecticut for $5,300. Jacques may have been a relative of David Tunick who owned Tucker 1044 from 1969 to 1973.
1926 Hispano -Suiza
Sold to Harry L. Gladding of Baltimore for $3,770.
1928 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A S Roadster
The second automobile sold to Jacques C. Tunick of Stamford, Connecticut for $3,650.
1930 Bentley 8-Litre
Sold to James P. MacAllister of New York for $3,500.
1935 Duesenberg Model J
(The auction catalog mis-identified the year as 1931.) Sold to Dieter Holterbosch for $10,000.
Today it has been fully restored and has won its class at Pebble Beach in 2015.
We did a full article on this Duesenberg back in 2020, click here to read the full story.
1931 Alfa Romeo 6C
The third automobile sold to Jacques C. Tunick of Stamford, Connecticut for $3,100.
1929 Bugatti Type 43 Grand Sport
Sold to Gurdon B. Wardes of Oyster Bay, New York for $1,850
1928 Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix
Sold to Henry Austin Clark, Jr. of Southampton, New York for $1,750.
This car was on display inside the Long Island Automotive Museum for many years.
Fast forward to today — it is now owned by Brumos Collection Museum in Jacksonville, Florida
Here's the second and final page of the auction catalog.
1930 Mercedes Benz 680S
The fourth automobile sold to Jacques C. Tunick of Stamford, Connecticut for $5,000. He must have been as excited as a kid in a candy store when acquiring these iconic classic cars.
1940 Buick Woodie Wagon
Sold to an unknown bidder for $875.
While there are no images of this particular wagon from the estate car collection, this is a photo of the car as it looks today, it is currently offered for sale for the price of $169,500 by Vintage Motors.
Buick only built 495 examples of these woodie wagons, and I would not be surprised if only a small hand full are still around today.
I could not find any photos or additional information on the rest of the cars sold off during the auction, but if anyone has any more details, we would enjoy hearing from you in the comments below.
Thank you again to Steve Krask for sending us the auction catalog!
Comments
I was at that auction ( at age 13) my folks drove to it as they knew the area well, my maternal grandparents and family lived a few miles away in Glen Head. This was just before I bought my first old car a 1931 Plymouth sedan and my interest in pre war cars did not wain ! I still have three. Austin Clark attended the auction in his 192? Rolls Royce town car. I recognized him because I used to visit his auto museum in Southampton. I would later become good friends with Austin and was the librarian for his collection of automobile literature for some years at his house in Glen Cove. He and I would attend the AACA annual meeting in Philadelph9ia together for years, were on the team that organized and ran the AACA Glidden Tour in long island in 1981 , all kinds of car activities. This included celebrations of the Vanderbilt Cup Races on their Anniversaries that we used the Main Maid Inn as a place for the start and finish and dinner. Austin gave me my first 100 mph ride in a pre 1915 automobile…..........that is another tale - that was documented by the law on a radar /speed camera. It was on North Sea Rd. between Southampton and Sag Harbor.
Forgot to mention Jaques and David Tunick were brothers, they had antique cars for sale in Greenwich, Ct. on a lot they owned on Rt. 95 the north side of the road. Much of the cars they had were stored outside on an open lot.
The Duesenberg Beverly sedan had its shift lever sawed off about 4 inches above the floor - was done by vandals as a souvenir when the cars were in the garages at the Bird estate . Car was owned more recently by Mark Smith of NH and Va. and when he passed away 2 years ago he left that car to Steve Babinsky ( so the car is in excellent hands of a caring owner) - it remains mostly original with a repaint many many decades ago. I saw the car in October when on a tour of Steve’s collection. I am certain that this is the first Beverly sedan built and was pictured in the custom body salon programs at that time that I have a collection of. More useless information . PS a automobile salon was by invitation only - no general public allowed to attend and they ran from 1915 to 1931 , luxury cars only, - the final NY salons held in the ballroom of the Commodore Hotel in NY City.
All of this, including comments edges toward a wonderful magazine feature and perhaps even an eventual book!
As for my personal preferences… THAT BUGATTI!
Gram, The New York Times mentioned the sale in the May 12, 1962 issue.
Howard, you have another connection to Bird’s Long Island Duesenberg J! The designer of the three 1934 Walker-LaGrande Convertible/Coupes was none other than Tucker designer, Alex Tremulis. Tremulis would play hooky from school to draw the cars in the Duesenberg and Stutz showrooms. The sales manager at the Chicago showroom immediately saw the potential in Tremulis to draw up his customer’s custom coachwork so he could produce a sketch overnight as opposed to waiting several days by going through the Indianapolis studio. Tremulis was paid $1.00 for a black and white sketch and $2.50 for a color drawing. As an “In-House” designer, Tremulis’ design work was placed under the Walker nameplate. Prior to getting paid for his artwork, Tremulis was cleaning out fruit stands for $0.10 and hour. He declared “I am now a designer” and never looked back. Three Duesenbergs were built to Tremulis’ sketch: J-530, the only supercharged version now in the collection of the Academy of Art University, J-531, now in Harry Yeaggy’s fantastic collection, and J-534, now in the LeMay collection.
Decades after Tremulis drew up the car, Art Center’s Strother MacMinn was perusing yard sales in Auburn, Indiana, and stumbled upon one of Tremulis’ Duesenberg renderings and immediately recognized it as the initial sketch for the 1934 Walker-LaGrandes. He snatched up the rendering and sold it back to his pal Tremulis… for $2.50! When the Academy of Art purchased J-530 at the Amelia Island auction, we presented the curators with a print of Tremulis’ original rendering for their collection.
In 1936, Tremulis would replace Gordon Buehrig as Chief Stylist at Auburn when Buehrig left for Budd, and would go on to add the iconic side pipes to the supercharged Cord 812 (Buehrig was not a fan of the “chrome entrails” on his Cord design). Then Tremulis went back to LeBaron and designed the 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt show cars of which 5 were built, now in various collections. He designed supersonic jet aircraft at Wright Field during the war just before his most famous adventure as Preston Tucker’s Chief Stylist for the Tucker 48 and personally helped complete the build of Tucker #1044 after the plant had to close its doors! It’s a small world!
Great story. Thank you.
BTW between Austi Clark and the Brumos Collection the T35 Bugatti lived in Vermont in the collection of Charles Levy.
Not sure what I enjoyed more, the article or the comments. So great to have this great community of enthusiasts who share their passion for automotive history!