Only Fools and Horses megafan pays £22,720 for Del Boy's cocktail bar, 44 times the asking price

An Only Fools and Horses megafan paid £22,720 for Del Boy's tacky cocktail bar at a Fieldings auction in Stourbridge, far above its £500 to £600 estimate. The free-standing wraparound bar on the BBC show, which aired from 1981 to 2003, drew a lively online and in-person bidding battle that wrapped up with roughly 200 participants. The sale highlighted a night of pop-culture memorabilia, which also included a 1970s pinstripe suit worn by John Bonham of Led Zeppelin and a guitar signed by David Bowie.

The bar was decorated with cream-coloured padded vinyl on the outside and was a regular fixture in the Trotters' Peckham flat, the place where Del kept his stash of cigars and a pineapple ice bucket on the booze cabinet that featured in most scenes. It was designed by Italian furniture makers Mascagni Mobili, measuring 107 cm high and 106 cm wide. Fieldings Music and Entertainment Specialist Rachel Holland called the 20th-century pop-culture furniture piece a rare and fascinating item with strong provenance.

Director Will Farmer said both he and the auction’s buyer were ecstatic with the outcome. The winner has already paid for the bar and is driving from Oxford to collect it. "He’s absolutely off the scale delighted," Farmer said, adding that the buyer was a brilliant, new owner who saw the piece through the media and decided, in his own words, "I'm having that."

The sale was conducted online-only, with bidders competing in a fully contested process. Alongside the Del Boy bar, bidders eyed other major items, including a suit worn by a Led Zeppelin member and a signature guitar from Bowie, underscoring the evening’s broader appeal to fans of classic music and television.

Provenance notes accompany the bar, including a handwritten receipt from the seller reading: "Bar used on set of Only Fools and Horses, Sold J. Williams 19.1.92, S.P. Haberfield." The piece was acquired by the vendor’s father, described as an actor and producer, directly from the sitcom’s prop coordinator after the studio relocated from London to Bristol. The bar is thus presented not only as a piece of furniture but as a slice of British television history, reflecting the enduring popularity of a show centered on wheeler-dealer Derek “Del Boy” Trotter and his younger brother Rodney as they chase fortunes in Peckham.