A massive Monday mystery: tracing the origins of an enormous Berliet

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Whenever we present a mystery car, the first challenge is usually to identify its manufacturer, but today's photographs come from Matt Shepherd, whose years of studying old photographs have made him something of an expert at identifications, and so we're asking for no such favour. This car, we know, is a 1913 Berliet. Matt suggests that it must be a 25hp model since that was the largest in the 1913 catalogue, the 40hp and 60hp models having been discontinued a few years earlier. The registration LK 6020 was issued in London.

That does not mean that there are not several questions we'd like to know about it, not least because it's a really unusual car. The size alone would have made it highly conspicuous among the horse traffic of London, to say nothing for how it must have looked to the rustics of the English countryside. Whoever owned it obviously had some money, but they must also have had something of a sporting inclination, if the rakishness of the body is anything to go by. The way the long bonnet blends seamlessly into the barrel-sided torpedo coachwork is extremely suggestive of speed and power and the humongous spotlight and horn seem to exclaim: "Make way for Mr. Toad!"

Matt tells us as much as he can: "The first photograph shows the car outside a dairy building (very similar to the former Dairy Supply Company one near the British Musuem and now a Pizza Express, but the one in the photo has more arches), but that location may offer no clues anyway. The names on the back of this photograph are ‘J. Williams, Doodie and Valentine,’ presumably the three people. Also, is the car's mascot a dancing lady?

"The second photograph is labelled ‘Nancy in Berliet, 1913’ on the back. The car seems to lack the windscreen here. The final photograph, dated 1914, really shows the length of the car, and assuming nearside and offside rear wings are identical they have changed at the rear between this and the first photo. The writing on the back I cannot decipher." Our best guess would be "The family, Selsey, 1914."

We still know nothing of the coachbuilder. Does the style look familiar to anyone? We're also curious to know the locations of all the photographs, general or precise, and discover who the mysterious J. Williams, Doodie and Valentine might have been.

It's a mightily impressive car, so we'd really like to learn more about it. Please tell us what you can.

Words: Zack Stiling; photograph: Matt Shepherd Collection
 

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