For sale: Stirling Moss’ watch, helmet, cufflinks and trophy

You want the great man’s helmet? His watch? Lucky No. 7 cufflinks? What about the gold stopwatch his mother used to time him when he started racing? Even his passport is among the 50 items that will be sold in the NEC Classic online auction on Saturday 14^th November.

There are no price guides for any of the items in the sale, being held by Silverstone Auctions. Everything is being sold at no reserve.  What will the items sell for? Your guess is as good as ours.

One thing for sure is that Sir Stirling, who died in April, has left a wealth of Moss memorabilia. He was famously generous and relaxed about signing things for fans – his tiny “Stirling Moss” scrawl adorns everything from pictures, photos and books to race suits, steering wheels  and rally plates – and he was businesslike about promoting products. For decades no auction of automobilia has been complete without something Stirling Moss related.  But this sale promises to take Moss collectibles into the stratosphere.

What would you like to have? Here’s our guide to some of the highlights…

The watches

The one thing we would kill for in this auction is not a watch at all, but a watchstrap. Stirling designed it himself in 1954 and wore it for 38 years in more than 200 races – including his three  victories in the Monaco Grand Prix, his famous win in the 1955 Mille Miglia and also in the 1961 Glover Trophy at Goodwood, when his Lotus left the track and crashed, ending his Formula 1 career.

The strap is a delicate-looking solid gold twin band, engraved “SM”, and specially designed by Stirling so it could hold a variety of different watches and be easy to clean – all that engine oil spraying everywhere had ruined his leather watchstraps. The watch in the strap for the sale is a 1956 gold Jaeger LeCoultre alarm watch in good working order. It is reported that Stirling thought the alarm function would be useful so he could get a  nap between races, but  it didn’t work out like that because he couldn't hear it over the noise of the other cars.

The auction house says it is one of the most historic and personal items ever to be offered by anyone involved in grand prix racing.

And if we couldn’t have that we’d definitely go for the stopwatch, which is just as personal. It’s gold and was used by Stirling’s mother Eileen to record his lap times when he started racing, and that’s better than gold. It was actually a present from Eileen to Stirling’s father Alfred to mark their 25^th wedding anniversary, and is engraved as such. Did it record his lap times during Stirling’s first win at Goodwood in 1948? Very possibly.

If you want something a little more modern there’s no shortage of unworn limited-edition timepieces often signed by Sir Stirling – and some even containing  a piece of a racesuit. Watches produced to mark the famous Mille Miglia victory of 1955, his win in the Aston Martin DBR1 in the 1958 Goodwood Tourist Trophy, his final victory in the Monaco GP  in 1961, and watches that celebrate  both the Ferrari 250 SWB and his 80^th birthday (celebrated at the Goodwood Revival in 2009) are all in the sale.

There’s also a prototype of a Stirling Moss Le Mans Ultimate watch from 2011. It was never put into production because at that time Stirling was unable to sign the dials, so it remains the one and only.

The helmets

Stirling Moss in his plain white helmet is an iconic image. He had four during his career as a professional race driver: two by Herbert Johnson and two made for him by Patey Helmets. The helmet in the sale is a Patey from 1958 and worn by Stirling for 49 years, its last outing when he raced at the Goodwood Revival in 2007. It’s signed, of course.

The trophies

Have you ever seen a Stirling Moss race trophy offered for sale? The answer is almost certainly not – Stirling sold most of them to an American collector in the 1970s.  One escaped and is the only trophy in the sale. It is for his victory in the 1951 Daily Express Tourist Trophy at Silverstone driving a Jaguar XK120. And, yes, Stirling did sign it.

Personal items

The race suit that Sir Stirling wore during a race at Le Mans in 2011 when he announced his retirement from motorsport is sure to be a sought-after item in the sale. It’s the sort of lightweight, light blue suit that Stirling designed for Dunlop in the 1950s.

Or what about his gold penknife, or, more evocative perhaps, the number seven gold cufflinks he designed and wore often? And, yes, among other personal items is his 1985-issued British passport – complete with 100 country stamps from all around the world.

The pictures

Lots of them, plus rally plates, prints, books, posters and photos, all signed. Take your pick. There’s an evocative Alan Stammers print, “My Last Race”, of Stirling in the Lotus Climax in the fateful race at Goodwood in 1962. It’s number two of 300 and signed. And there’s quite a choice  if you want a photograph of him at Goodwood – appropriate for the race driver known as “Mr Goodwood”.

The auction takes place at 12:00 on Saturday 14^th November; see all the lots here.

Images courtesy of Silverstone Auctions, Revival 2007 helmet image courtesy of Motorsport Images.