Lot Ended
Description
Ex-Sharpe Collection; highly original; only 28,500 miles indicated;
good running order; a wonderful mechanical jewel that would grace any
collection
‘The cars made
by the Wolseley Tool & Motorcar Company are typical throughout of English
rather than of Continental engineering practice. They have earned golden
opinions for their power, simplicity, and freedom from breakdown’ – The
Complete Motorist, 1904.
Although younger
folk may associate Wolseley with upmarket badge-engineered BMC cars of the
1960s, those with longer memories will view the marque with greater reverence.
Graduating from the manufacture of sheep shearing equipment, Irish-born
Frederick York Wolseley made his first car in Birmingham way back in 1895.
Managed by none other than Herbert Austin,
Wolseley soon attracted the interest of Vickers, Britain’s largest armaments
manufacturer. Backed by their deep pockets and with ready access to the
high-grade metals used in weapons production, Wolseley were able to produce a
range of quality cars from a new factory in Adderley Park which made them
Britain’s largest car manufacturer by 1913.
They
spent World War One making Hispano-Suiza aircraft engines under licence, honing
skills which allowed them to engineer their own sophisticated car engines when
the war ended.
Launched at the 1919 Olympia
Motor Show, the delightful little Wolseley Ten was not an entirely new design as
it was based on the pre-war Stellite produced by an associate Wolseley company.
However, the advanced OHC engine was entirely new and very good it was too,
although somewhat expensive to produce.
Rated at
10hp, the 1,267cc engine had four-cylinders, a detachable cylinder head and
impressive power delivery – good enough to propel a streamlined Wolseley Ten
around the Brooklands track at 78mph, although in standard form 45mph was more
realistic, still impressive for a light car of the era. The same engine was also
used in the 'Moth' spec works racecars and the supercharged Becke Powerplus.
Available as a two- or four-seat tourer or an
open two-seater coupe with dickey, the Ten remained in production until 1925 by
which time Wolseley were facing deep financial troubles. Quality doesn’t come
cheap and mass-produced rivals from the likes of Austin, Morris and Ford were
eroding sales to such an extent that Vickers wanted out. In early 1927 William
Morris used £730,000 of his own money to take over, beating off rival bids from
Austin and General Motors, but things were never quite the same after
that.
Dating from 1921, this wonderfully
preserved Wolseley Ten two-seater with dickey positively gleams with high-grade
metals, a plaque on the dash showing that it was distributed via FJ Crowhurst of
Chippenham. First registered in October of that year with the Warwickshire-issue
number NX 1040, a buff logbook shows that by 1926 it was owned by a Mr Slatter
of Stratford-upon-Avon, moving south to Cambridge in c.1954, shortly after which
it was acquired by the Sharpe family to join their celebrated collection of
highly original Vintage cars.
Here it remained
until the collection was dispersed at a Christie’s auction in June 2005 where it
was acquired by a Mr Dennis Bodimeade of Essex, the invoice showing that he paid
£10,850 – you can view the Christie’s catalogue description
here:
https://www.christies.com.cn/en/lot/lot-4532318
Mr Bodimeade fully recommissioned the Wolseley and
fitted a new set of set of tyres (as detailed by invoices on file) and was to
enjoy the car for the next 17 years, attending many shows and rallies. He also
made a couple of minor modifications to the vehicle to improve driveability,
including fitting a fuel pump, a water pump and an SU carb in place of the
original Zenith, the latter part being retained should the purist wish to
reinstate it.
Old MOTs show that the Wolseley
clocked up some 3,000 miles during his ownership, the odometer currently showing
28,563 miles which could well be correct, given that the car spent some 50 years
on static display in the Sharpe Collection.
Our
vendor acquired NX 1040 from Mr Bodimeade in 2022 to join his carefully curated
collection of highly original Vintage cars and motorcycles and it has been very
lightly used since, the vendor reporting that it runs well and does not overheat
(a temperature gauge was retro-fitted to the radiator to monitor cool
running).
As you can see in the photos, this rare and early Wolseley is in
fantastic condition for a 104-year-old and the quality of the construction is
plain to see. Properly greased and maintained, it will no doubt continue to
provide reliable Vintage motoring well into the next century and beyond and will
be most welcome at VSCC Light Car events.
An
exquisite example of 1920s mechanical jewellery, it is on offer here at a very
modest guide price (less than half what our vendor paid for it) and now only
needs a discerning new custodian who can continue to preserve it for future
generations to enjoy.
Consigned by James
Dennison – 07970 309907 – [email protected]