Bonhams's Golden Age of Motoring sale returns for its third year

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For us, one of the highlights of the auction calendar is Bonhams's Golden Age of Motoring sale, consisting entirely of Veteran and Edwardian lots and appropriately held on Friday 4th November, just before the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. Of the 21 cars consigned, 16 or 17 are Brighton-eligible Veterans (one is listed as 1904/5), and of them all the undboubted highlight is the 1897 Daimler 4hp Tonneau.

The British motor industry began with the Daimler Company of Coventry, which commenced motor-car manufacture at the start of 1897. All the evidence points toward this being only the second Coventry Daimler built and the earliest survivor.

The oldest Coventry Daimler

Its significance to the development of the motor-car in Britain is therefore indisputable, but we should not overlook its contribution to coachbuilding, either. It was sold new to Col. Arthur Mulliner, of the Northampton coachbuilding family, brother to the better-known H. J. He would naturally have bodied the car himself, and he appears to have rebodied it around 1900 as a Tonneau, a style which he is credited with inventing. We can see how quickly the tonneau style was adopted by coachbuilders around Europe thereafter.

Mulliner seems to have been quite attached to the car, as he kept it until the 1940s, entered it in the first Daily Sketch 'Old Crocks Runs' and displayed it at a local carnival. It then passed to the Veteran Car Club's pioneering preservationist, Stanley Sears, who in turn sold it to enthusiast Denis Flather in 1952. It has remained in the same family ever since, has completed over 50 Brightons and was, earlier this year, the subject of an in-depth article in The Automobile.

With an estimate of £225,000-275,000, this is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire the oldest surviving British production car.

Everything from a tricycle to a Napier

There are many other things to get excited about, from an 1898 Peugeot Type 15 (£275,000-325,000) phaeton to a prosperous-looking 1904 Napier 15hp tonneau (£275,000-350,000). A 1903 Humber Olympia (£30,000-35,000) and c.1903 Stanley steamer (£37,000-42,000) cater for the more affordable end of the market, and even if you're not looking to buy a car, you'll probably find something in the automobila department which you'd like to take home.

Words: Zack Stiling; pictures: Bonhams
 

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