The black motorcycle sits in a show window on Park Avenue in Manhattan, sharing shopping attention with an auction of jewelry at Phillips de Pury.
The 1925 prototype Brough Superior SS100 Alpine Grand Sport has a presale estimate of $600,000 to $700,000 and, at those prices, would set a record for a motorcycle sold at auction when it goes on the block on Dec. 15. The record for a motorcycle sale at auction, according to Phillips, is $551,000, for a 1915 Cyclone board track racer sold at the MidAmerica auction in Monterey, Calif., in 2008.
What is unusual is not just the high presale estimate of the Brough, but also that it is not being offered as part of a motorcycle or automobile auction. It is one lot in an auction called Design Masters.
The items from the auction are on view from Thursday until Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. And visitors get a chance to glimpse the Orgone Stretch Lounge of Marc Newson, whose presale estimate is $350,000 to $450,000, and a huge limited edition resin table by the architect Zaha Hadid, estimated at $90,000 to $100,000. There are also works by Carlo Bugatti, Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier and Philippe Starck.
Alexander Payne, the worldwide director of design for Phillips de Pury, said in a news release, “Our relentless ambition for speed and progress is embodied in this motorcycle, a design icon of the modern age. Eighty-five years later, it’s still one of the fastest, most stylish machines on the road.”
On Tuesday, the Brough’s owner, Michael FitzSimons, an engineer, was giving the bike a last detailing before it went on view.
Mr. FitzSimons worked for two years setting up the motorcycle department at Sotheby’s and four years doing the same at Bonham’s.
“Why am I selling it?” he said. “Look at me. I’m 74 years old. It’s not true that the one who dies with the most toys wins.
“It was always my feeling that certain examples of engineering rose to a higher level to become icons,” said. “This is the apogee of its type. It is a good time for me to put it in an art auction.”
Mr. FitzSimons uses the term industrial art. He said that he believed the sale of a motorcycle among standout furniture and other products of design can be a landmark, increasing appreciation of motorcycles, much as did the 1998 Guggenheim Museum exhibition “The Art of the Motorcycle,” which included a Brough Superior SS100.
George Brough (rhymes with gruff) was the son of a motorcycle manufacturer who set up his own factory in Nottingham, England, in 1919, naming it Superior in a gesture of filial impiety. Of the about 3,000 motorcycles he built before 1940, when World War II ended production, roughly 1,000 survive.
A showman and sportsman, Mr. Brough rode this bike in a 1925 Austrian Alpine Trial race. Phillips said, “Brough’s Alpine Grand Sport was built with large Rexine panniers for overnight gear, two tool bags below them and tuned for competition at altitude. It features a Bonnkksen time and trip speedometer, and is longer and lower than the standard SS 100.”
Many have called the Brough the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles. But Mr. FitzSimons argues they are more like the blower Bentleys of the time — rugged racing machines, operated by young aristocrats, proud of their engineering and undisguised by styling. The bulletlike fuel tank, famous as the “bulbous nose” and the precisely layered cooling vanes give a Brough Superior a characteristic face like the rugged Bentley.
T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, owned seven Brough Superiors and died in the crash of one, in 1935, with an eighth, an Alpine similar to the one owned by Mr. FitzSimons, still on order.
Phillips de Pury opened the gallery where the bike was shown, at 450 Park Avenue, in November, and it appears to mean increased competition with Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Over at Christie’s, a rival show, also on Dec. 15, includes a Bugatti. It is not a car or bike, but 1902 Carlo Bugatti cabinet of oak, glass, copper and parchment.
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