World War One propeller soars in price at Lichfield auction

The impressive wooden airscrew, measuring approximately 240cm tip to tip, was sold by Richard Winterton Auctioneers for £1,050.

More than a century ago, the prop would have been fitted to a British SES 61 aircraft with a Hispano-Suiza 150 HP engine using a two-blade airscrew.

This type of craft was widely used on the Western Front from 1916 to the end of World War One.

Various companies made the propellers, which were also used on American, Canadian and Australian planes.

Auctioneer Ben Winterton said: “Items such as this come up very rarely. We had lots of interest in the auction and this propeller which once flew the skies sold for a fittingly high price to a UK bidder.”

The same sale saw an impressive family archive with links to Lichfield, Uttoxeter and Stoke go under the hammer for £1,600.

Running from the late 17th to the mid-20th century, the archive included documents, medals, badges, crests, photographs, birth, marriage and death certificates, wills and other ephemera relating largely to the Gibbons Mayne and Davis/Hancock families.

The majority related to the families of Reverend William Gibbons Mayne the younger (1860-1928) and his wife Helen, including Rev Gibbons Mayne’s Lichfield Cathedral ordination documents as priest and deacon dated 1885 and 1886.

Senior valuer Sarah Williams said: “This was a fascinating archive to catalogue because it encompassed such a wide spectrum of different areas of collecting, from photography and silhouette portraiture to early military documents and travel papers.”

Richard Winterton Auctioneers offers free monthly valuations of medals and militaria with specialist Jeff Clark at The Lichfield Auction Centre, Wood End Lane, Fradley Park.For details, call 01543 251081 or email office@richardwinterton.co.uk.