Stirling Moss’ prized possessions sell for £260,000

Fifty items connected to the late Sir Stirling Moss OBE – ranging from his watch to his passport – sold at the weekend for a quarter of a million pounds.

As we predicted, the most sought-after lot was Stirling’s iconic watch band – a simple looking gold band engraved SM which sold for £67,850 including the premium. Stirling had worn it for 38 years in more than 200 races – including the race at Goodwood in 1961 when a crash ended his Formula 1 career and nearly killed him.

Just as iconic, a Patey helmet from 1958 which Stirling had worn for 49 years – the last time at the Goodwood Revival in 2007 – sold for the second highest price of the day, £37,950.

With so few Stirling Moss race trophies in the public domain – the great champion sold most of them in the 1970s – the cup for winning the 1951 Daily Express Tourist Trophy at Silverstone was always going to be sought after, and it sold for £12,075.

Among the very personal items in the sale was the stopwatch used by Stirling’s mother Eileen to record his lap times when he started racing. The watch was a present from Eileen to Stirling’s father Alfred to mark their 25th wedding anniversary. It made £9,775, making the same price was the gold lucky No. 7 cufflinks he designed.

Other personal items that found ready buyers included the race suit that Sir Stirling wore during a race at Le Mans in 2011 when he announced his retirement (£7,820), and his gold penknife (£2,530).

And what would you pay for Stirling’s 1985-issued British passport? Someone out there paid out £5,000 for that.

Stirling loved his watches and there was quite a selection in the sale, limited edition signed timepieces marking highlights such as the famous Mille Miglia victory of 1955, his final victory in the Monaco GP in 1961, and his 80th birthday celebrated at the Goodwood Revival in 2009. The biggest price of £12,075 went to a watch commemorating Stirling’s win in the Aston Martin DBR1 in the 1958 Goodwood Tourist Trophy.

The sale, held by Silverstone Auctions in the NEC Classic online auction on Saturday 14th November, raised in total around £260,000, with everything selling at no reserve.

Images courtesy of Silverstone Auctions.