Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s hand-made personal burgee, flown on Suhaili during his 1968-9 epic, record-setting solo circumnavigation, flew under the hammer in Bonhams’ London sale room, selling for £2,375. Guide price was just £1,000-1,500 but as we predicted in CB319, rival collectors pushed each other to the limit for this unrepeatable trophy of British endeavour, sold with a letter of authenticity.
Bonhams’ mammoth two-day annual Gentleman’s Library Sale at the end of January always includes an eclectic compendium of boaty bits: from a 13ft (4m) south Indian Kerala canoe at £1,125 to cocos de mer, the female-formed ‘voluptuous sea beans’ that grow on only two islands in The Seychelles and have fascinated sailors for centuries. One, an unpictured lot that may have been overlooked, made just £250, cheap for these lovely…
