LOT 304

1902 Bartholomew 3½hp High-Wheeled Spindler Registration no. BS 8038 Chassis no. 1

Sold for £19,500 inc. premium

Lot 304

1902 Bartholomew 3½hp High-Wheeled Spindler

London to Brighton Run Sale, Veteran Motor Cars and Related Automobilia|1 November 2019, 18:00 GMT|London, New Bond Street

1902 Bartholomew 3½hp High-Wheeled Spindler
Registration no. BS 8038
Chassis no. 1

*Unique self-built American automobile
*UK registered since 1988
*Present ownership since 2006
*VCC dated
*Previous LBVCR participant

Footnotes

"Recognising the efforts of those early pioneers who made their own cars, if only in a single example, is important for an understanding what this country was like during the dawn of the horseless age. The American automobile did not arise full-grown into an assembly line. Its borning (sic) years and its puberty were experienced in hundreds of villages and towns from coast to coast, as small machine shops, bicycle builders and carriage makers – even doctors, jewellers and florists – used a few tools and varying talent to put themselves automotively (sic) on the road." – Standard Catalog of American Cars.

This unique American automobile was built in 1902 by one George Bartholomew of Russell, a hamlet in upper New York State near the Canadian border. George decided to build a car for himself after seeing one in operation in a town some 30 miles away. His self-built automobile is powered by a 3½hp Fairfield single-cylinder two-stroke stationary engine, which he specially adapted to use in this car. The chassis is numbered '1' and the engine '19'. The suspension is by fully elliptical springs front and rear, while final drive is by chain via a two-speed gearbox. Unlike many such vehicles of this era, steering is not by means of a tiller but by a small steering wheel. George Bartholomew drove his runabout for about four years and it remained in the Bartholomew family's possession until 1949. The car was subsequently bought by a museum in the USA.

In 1988 the Bartholomew was imported into the UK and registered in this country having been purchased by a Scotland-based enthusiast. Dated by the Veteran Car Club as of 1902 manufacture, the car was acquired by the current owner in 2006, since when it has successfully completed the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run on two occasions. This unique American Veteran is offered with a VCC Dating Certificate and a large file of history that includes a photograph of George Bartholomew and his wife aboard his creation.

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