National
Memorabilia Of Dorothy Paget, Eccentric Anglo-American Millionairess, For Sale At Bonhams Racing Sale In Newmarket
By
Mar 25, 2008, 10:12

On Saturday July 19 Bonhams will hold their third Racing sale at Tattersalls in Newmarket. This year’s sale includes an intriguing collection of photographs and racing memorabilia connected to the fabulously wealthy Anglo American millionairess, Dorothy Paget (1905-1960).

The collection, estimated at £1,500 - £2,000, gives a unique insight into Dorothy Paget’s life, recording the glamour, riches and recklessness which characterised the world of British Racing during the early 1930s and late 1940s.

Dorothy Paget was as eccentric as she was wealthy. The daughter of an English aristocrat, Lord Queensborough and an American mother, Pauline Payne Whitney, she owned a number of trophy winning racehorses, including Golden Miller, who secured the Cheltenham Gold cup for her in five consecutive years, and who won the 1934 Grand National with a new record time. As well as racehorses, Paget was also the financial backer behind a supercharged Bentley racing team.

She gambled huge sums every year and being highly superstitious wore the same tweed overcoat to every meet but this didn’t always bring her good luck. The collection, which Bonhams are selling, shows that she lost over £108,000 in 1948 (practically the equivalent of £3 million today), four years later, in 1952, she made a gambling profit of £18,000.

Paget had a reputation for being tyrannical with her trainers, phoning them at all hours and rebuking them severely when her horses lost. One trainer, Walter Nightingale, became so exasperated with her that he demanded she move all her horses from his stable within 24 hours or he would set them loose in Epsom.

On another occasion Dorothy reputedly commandeered her local butcher’s Baby Austin for £300, when her own Rolls Royce broke down on the way to a race meeting. When she arrived she was unrecognised by her party and so from then on she insisted on taking two Rolls Royce cars to every event.

The collection will be sold as part of Bonhams Racing sale, which will include equestrian pictures, silver, racing trophies, memorabilia and equestrian works of art. Other highlights included in this year’s sale are a long tom whip (£250-350), owned by HRH Queen Elizabeth II's former racehorse trainer, Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort (1887- 1983), and a 19th century enamelled pocket watch (£1,000-1,500) which commemorated Fred Archer’s famous Derby win of 1881.

Sale Enquiries
Daniel Wright 01284 716 190
bury@bonhams.com

The Racing Sale
Saturday 19 July 2008 11am
Tattersalls, Newmarket, Suffolk England

Viewing
Thursday 17 July 2008 9am to 6pm
Friday 18 July 2008 9am to 5pm

For further information please contact Julian Roup on 0207 468 8259 or email julian.roup@bonhams.com or press@bonhams.com


www.bridleandbit.com