This is the Mercedes automobilia sale of your dreams

By Marc McLaren
News
 | 4 Feb 2019
Classic & Sports Car – This is the Mercedes automobilia sale of your dreams

Fancy getting your hands on some seriously rare bits of Mercedes-Benz paraphernalia? Well, here’s your chance.

More than 160 items from the renowned Stewart Imber collection, including over 40 Mercedes-related pieces, will be offered for sale at an auction in Cambridge later this year.

Imber runs the Themed Garages company, which for the past 13 years has dressed sets at the Goodwood Revival, and owns what is regarded as one of the UK’s finest collections of automobilia.

He sold a chunk of it in April last year via Cheffins auction house, and is now offloading another portion with the same firm. And this sale has a decidedly Merc bent to it.

Classic & Sports Car – This is the Mercedes automobilia sale of your dreams

Stewart Imber with a selection of the Mercedes-Benz automobilia

“As a Mercedes-Benz enthusiast and previous MB owner, there is a large MB contingent in the collection which is bound to be of interest for fans of the brand,” said Imber.

“The collection has been amassed over 43 years and is now so vast that I need to pass these wonderful pieces over to new custodians.”

Among the Mercedes items are illuminated signs, posters, tools, toys and promotional items covering eight decades of the German firm’s history. The highlight is a 1960s forecourt double-sided illuminated Mercedes-Benz garage sign with blue-neon rim lighting. It’s in full working order and is expected to sell for between £5000 and £6000.

Other standouts include a Perspex showroom sign from the ’70s and an original, enamel, pre-war dealership sign, each of which has a £2.5-3k estimate. In total, the Mercedes-Benz lots are expected to achieve between £18,000 and £20,000.

Classic & Sports Car – This is the Mercedes automobilia sale of your dreams

The collection spans eight decades of Mercedes history

Of course, there are plenty of items of interest to non-Mercedes enthusiasts, too. Among the other 120 lots are a rare Morris-Commercial garage hanging illuminated sign from the 1920s – still in working order – which comes with a £4-5k estimate, and a Morris Distributor illuminated sign from the 1930s (£2-3k).

“Stewart is renowned as having one of the greatest collections of motoring-related items in the UK,” said Cheffins director Jeremy Curzon.

“With some incredibly rare automobilia lots on offer, this sale will give fans and enthusiasts a one-off opportunity to buy pieces never previously seen on the open market.”

The Cheffins Cambridge Vintage Sale will take place on 27 April 2019. Click here for more details.

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