In the May/June 2023 edition of ScooterNova magazine (#37) we featured a 1963 German specification Vespa 50 that had been imported in to the UK when new by a Polish lady named Elizabeth Smolen. The late Elizabeth Smolen had escaped from Poland to the west during the 1950s and after arriving in this country set a up a Vespa dealership on the Wirral.
It is assumed Elizabeth imported this scooter through her contacts in Europe and she used it herself for getting around locally, finally selling it in 2020.
Elizabeth was also a keen and competitive rider, entering many events including the Isle of Man Scooter Week where took a number of awards in various races.
Elizabeth’s Vespa 50 appeared in the H&H Classic auction of March 2023 where it sold for £4,485 (inc buyers premium). From there it returned to the Wirral where Danny Doyle curated an exhibition at the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum in Birkenhead to celebrate her life and achievements.
The exhibition also included a replica of her Vespa SS90 racing scooter (the replica built around a 1969 Vespa 50). With the exhibition now closed, both scooters are going under the hammer again at the next H&H Auction later this month.
By the way, it is pure coincidence but Eliazbeth’s Vespa 50 also features in our 2026 wall calendar too.
Also among the 45 scooter lots is this rather tidy looking Douglas Vespa Rod Model, first registered in 1952 albeit with a 1951 chassis (possibly a period frame exchange). This piece of British-built scooter history has a guide price of between £4,000 and £5,000.
This 1965 Lambretta TV200/GT200 with an estimate of between 8,000 and £10,000 is another going under the hammer. This was the exact scooter used in the 1999 Stella Artois beer advertising campaign that had the strap line, ‘Reassuringly Expensive’. Some may argue that certain models of classic scooter have become just that…
If you fancy a brand new geared Vespa, then you will both a 2003 PX200 and a 2017 PX150 with just delivery miles on the clock, neither apparently having ever been ridden. Their estimates of between £3500 to £4500 don’t seem too bad either, especially for the PX200.
Finally, if you fancy something completely different, this also caught our eye – despite it not being a scooter. It is in fact a 1928 Pegasus, one of only six produced apparently, which consists of a P&M Panther frame and the engine from an Austin 7 car! It seems hybrids are nothing new…
The H&H Classic auction takes place at the National Motorcycle Museum on 29 October and you will find all the information you need about the rest of the lots and how to bid on the H&H website by clicking here.
Edition 52 of ScooterNova magazine is published on 24 October and available in all good scooter shops, branches of TG Jones and WH Smith nationwide, and also the ScooterNova online shop here.
Articles include Part 4 of a restoration series that shows a previous H&H auction scooter, a rather battered old Lambretta 200dl Electronic, being brought back to life.
