During his lifetime the Shalford, Essex property developer Alex Tanner (1942-2022) built up a collection of 64 cars. It had been his ambition to own at least two of the best cars from each of the last eight decades of the motor car and for Tanner, the best cars were Bentleys.
Alex Tanner joined the Bentley Drivers Club in 1974 and served as club chairman from 2008 to 2011. At one time or another he owned at least one model of every vintage Bentley and many of the British marque’s finest later models.
On behalf of the executors of his estate, Sworders will sell the Alex Tanner Collection on June 21st 2023. This superb single-owner motoring collection comprises 47 lots – 10 pre-war, classic and modern cars and 36 lots of automobilia including a fine array of a dozen glass petrol pump globes.
There are no fewer than seven Bentleys on offer, ranging in date from the remarkable 1928 4 1⁄2 litre Tourer with coachwork by Vanden Plas (estimate £650,000-700,000) to the 2008 Bentley Brooklands with just 28,650 miles on the clock (estimate £80,000-90,000).
Highlights
Additional highlights include a 1932 4/8-litre Open Tourer with a Le Mans body built by VBE Restorations in 2009 (estimate £280,000-320,000) and a 1931 4 litre Drophead Coupé (estimate £110,000-130,000).
Other vehicles are led by a 1949 Land Rover Series One. The ultra-desirable ‘lights-behind-the-grille’ model has a fantastic history file going back to the 1950s. It is guided at £40,000-45,000.
All images provided by Sworders
See also: Alice Springs. Retrospective in Berlin
