Two vintage tractors fetch almost £30,000 combined at auction

Two rare vintage tractors which once belonged to the late Bertie Nicolson of Brindister have sold for a combined sum of almost £30,000.

A well-attended auction at the farm saw a 1936 Ferguson Brown tractor go under the hammer for £15,200 to a buyer who was bidding over the internet.

A similar machine, made two years later, fetched £14,500.

Around 100 people turned up to either take part in the bidding or just to see it take place. Auctioneer for the day was Rod MacKenzie.

The sale of the tractors came as something of a highlight in the sale which saw hundreds of items, including old agricultural implements and mechanical components sold off as well as stationary engines, magnetos and literature.

Mr Nicolson began collecting vintage tractors during the 1980s in order to stage a pageant at the Cunningsburgh Show, after seeing a similar procession being held at the Turriff Show.

His daughter, Eileen Hunter, said she felt relief that the auction had been so well attended.

Speaking of the Ferguson Browns, she said: “It was really the tractors that brought this whole idea together.

“Rod MacKenzie knew that we were looking to sell them and rather than going down south with them he said ‘why not have the auction here?’

“They are tractors that are pretty rare. There was never a big number of them manufactured in the first place, and numbers just gradually decrease as the years go on – so they’re quite rare.

“All in all, I would like to think people will have gone away happy with their day – whether they were here to buy or just see something different.”

• More on the Brindister auction, including photographs from the event, will be included in Landwise, out on 14th February.