Cheffins’ online charity auction
Posted by Chris Graham on 15th April 2020
You can bid in the Cheffins’ Online Charity Auction for – among many other great lots – the pleasure of a ride on this 1915 Burrell showman’s engine, plus a pub lunch afterwards!
Cambridge-based Cheffins Auctioneers will be hosting a timed online auction in aid of the COVID-19 Fast Response Fund. This new fund has been set up by Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) to support Addenbrooke’s Hospital with whatever it needs during the coronavirus emergency crisis.
Scheduled to start on Friday, April 17th, the Cheffins’ online charity auction will include the chance to take a ride in ‘Nero’ – a 1915 Burrell showman’s traction engine, with a pub lunch at the end of the trip, courtesy of owner and Cheffins steam consultant, Willem Middlemiss.
Fancy a tour of the Aircraft Restoration Company’s headquarters at Duxford Airfield, plus the chance to sit in a spitfire? Click here to place your bid to place your bid between April 17th and the 24th.
Other lots being offered include a tour of the Aircraft Restoration Company’s headquarters at Duxford Airfield, plus the chance to sit in a spitfire. The hangars are home to an incredible collection of historic aircraft that are restored, maintained and operated by the Aircraft Restoration Company. Duxford is a live airfield, and the hangars are full of engineers working. The Aircraft Restoration Company has provided planes and pilots for films such as the forthcoming James Bond move No Time to Die and academy-award winning film Dunkirk.
Other lots include a state-of-the-art, John Deere power mower, courtesy of Ben Burgess, and a flying lesson from Marshalls of Cambridge. For the less machinery-minded, there’s the chance to have your name used as a character in the next Jeffrey Archer novel, as well as the opportunity to bid for tickets to watch England v India, including a tour of The Pavilion at Lord’s, or the chance of breakfast with racehorse trainer Michael Bell, in Newmarket.
The chance to sit inside a Spitfire is a rare treat indeed, but it’s available to bidders in the week-long, Cheffins Online Charity Auction.
Martin Millard, Director at Cheffins, says: “Cheffins wants to do something positive to support our local hospital and NHS staff here in Cambridge. The coronavirus does not discriminate, and we want to thank all the doctors, nurses, administrative staff and key workers who are working with this pandemic on a daily basis with such incredible fortitude.
“ACT has produced a list of items and associated costs of what is required to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. Frankly, it makes terrifying reading, but this is what our local NHS staff are facing right now So we hope this online auction will go some way to raising the much needed funds for our local, front-line heroes.
“We would also like to thank everyone who has donated lots for this online auction; we couldn’t have done this without their help, generosity and expediency, which has enabled us to pull this together in a very short space of time.”
The auction will go live online on Friday, April 17th at 10am, and will be open online for one week after that, closing on Friday, April 24th, at 7pm. Winners will be notified of their successful bids on Monday, April 27th. Details will be available on the Cheffins’ website – www.cheffins.co.uk/fine-art – and, if you’re interested in bidding for any of the lots, you will be able to register and bid online from next Friday.
Cheffins also points out that the usual Buyer’s Premium fee of 22.5% plus VAT (27%) will be waived for this online auction, as will the standard 3% surcharge that’s usually applied to online bids. All proceeds will go directly to the COVID-19 Fast Response Fund.
