La Marquise” sells for $4.62 million - world’s oldest operating motor vehicle

Images courtesy RM Auctions.

In a way, it’s surprising that RM Auctions even bothered at all to put a pre-auction estimate on “La Marquise,” the 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos stea... that currently holds the title of world’s oldest operating motor vehicle. As a unique specimen that attracted attention from beyond the bounds of the collector car hobby, any such estimate was bound to be more speculation than educated guess. What’s not surprising, then, is that “La Marquise” far surpassed that estimate, ultimately selling for $4.62 million Friday night.

Bidding for the De Dion at RM’s Hershey auction started at $500,000, quickly jumped to the seven-figure mark, and steadily increased between two in-attendance bidders until about the $4 million mark, when one dropped out. The winning bid of $4.2 million (the sale price includes a 10 percent buyer’s premium), however, appeared to have come from a proxy bidder for a buyer whose identity has so far eluded even the most knowledgeable sources.

As RM Auctions noted in its press release, the buyer will be just the fifth owner of “La Marquise” in the De Dion’s 127-year history. It came to the auction from the estate of the late John O’Quinn with a pre-auction estimate of $2 million to $2.5 million.

While no other cars at the Hershey auction sold for seven figures, nearly a dozen sold for more than six figures, helping push the total sale amount at Hershey to $10,065,200. Rounding out the top five sales of the auction:

1912 Mercedes 28/50 PS Town Car – $253,000
1938 Lincoln Model K Convertible Victoria – $203,500
1935 Packard Twelve Coupe Roadster – $181,500
1930 Cord L-29 Boattail Speedster – $165,000

For results from the Hershey sale, visit RMAuctions.com.

UPDATE: The History Blog found this clip from Great Cars TV showing “La Marquise” running:

And Howard Kroplick over at his blog on the Vanderbilt Cup Races recorded some video of “La Marquise” entering the RM stage and the subsequent bidding: