A collection of Jaguars owned by Anthony Hamilton, father and former manager of seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, has gone under the hammer at Silverstone, led by a record-breaking £506,250 XJ220.
Anthony Hamilton’s Jaguars collection attracted international attention when it was offered as part of The Iconic Sale at the BRDC Classic at Silverstone on 25 July.
Hamilton’s wider 27-car private collection encompassed a variety of marques, but Jaguars formed a particularly significant part of it, including an XJ220, E-types and recreations of some of the most celebrated competition Jaguars in the marque’s history.
The undoubted star was Hamilton’s 1994 Jaguar XJ220, finished in Silverstone Green. The remarkably low-mileage example sold for £506,250, establishing what Iconic Auctioneers described as a new UK live-auction record for the model.
One of just 69 UK-supplied right-hand-drive XJ220s, the car had covered little more than 3,000 miles and was offered with an extensive service history. Its distinctive registration, 220 C, also remained with the car.
There were strong results elsewhere among Hamilton’s Jaguars. A 1967 Series 1 4.2-litre E-type Roadster, finished in Opalescent Dark Green with Tan trim, exceeded its £80,000–£100,000 estimate to sell for £119,250. A second 1967 Series 1 Roadster, similarly finished in Opalescent Dark Green but with a Suede Green interior, realised £84,375.
Another particularly eye-catching result came from Hamilton’s 1973 Series 3 V12 E-type 2+2, a manual example in the wonderfully period Heather colour with Maroon leather. Estimated at £50,000–£60,000, it sold above estimate for £63,000.
Some of the most spectacular Jaguars in Hamilton’s collection did, however, remain unsold. The XKSS recreation, estimated at £325,000–£375,000, failed to find a buyer, as did the two C-type tool-room recreations of XKC001 and XKC003, each estimated at £175,000–£225,000. Their failure to sell made the strength of the £506,250 achieved by Hamilton’s remarkably original XJ220 all the more notable.
The auction house’s wider Silverstone sale generated £8.2 million and established four new UK and four new world live-auction records, with bidding coming from as far afield as America, Australia and Japan.
For Jaguar enthusiasts, however, it was Hamilton’s XJ220 that provided the headline. More than three decades after Jaguar’s extraordinary 200mph supercar entered production, the result provided another indication of the increasing value being placed on exceptional, low-mileage examples of one of the most remarkable Jaguars of the modern era.
