Monday mystery: a vintage tourer for the business class

• 

We don't have much information to guide us with this photograph, but we're fairly sure of one thing—whenever it was taken, it wasn't around the winter solstice. The folded-down roof, medium-weight suits and slight shadows suggest that our motorists have ventured out to enjoy a fair day perhaps in the late spring or early autumn.

We also know one more thing—the identity of the photographer. He was F. Russell Jewry of 69, High Street, Deal, Kent. It seems he was a prominent photographer in the local area during the reign of King George V., as Historic England holds some of his negatives, notably including shots of the wreck of Preussen, a steel-hulled German sailing ship operated by F. Laeisz of Hamburg. Launched in 1902, she was apparently the largest metal-hulled sailing ship ever produced, and the only full-rigger with five masts until 2000, as well as being notably swift, easily getting up to 16 knots (18.4 m.p.h.). She had just embarked on her fourteenth voyage, with general cargo bound for Chile, when she was involved in a collision with a little cross-Channel steamer named Brighton in the English Channel, a few miles from the Sussex town of Newhaven, on November 5th, 1910. Brighton returned to port to summon a tug to rescue the damaged and uncontrollable Preussen, but a storm-tossed sea interfered with attempts to recover her to Dover Harbour or anchor her nearby; her anchor chains snapped and she drifted onto the rocks of Crab Bay where she eventually sank, fortunately without loss of life.

Pardon the digression—clearly, Mr. Jewry was not a man to miss a good photographic opportunity. We wish we knew more about our motoring crowd, though—is the man at the wheel in the owner, showing off his new car to his friends, or is their business-like attire an indication that they are, in fact, members of the motor trade?

Annoyingly, we can't even put our fingers on what the car is, as it has been captured at an awkward angle which obscures much of the radiator. If we were to have a stab in the dark, we'd guess perhaps one of the less sporting Sunbeams of the early vintage period, but we can't find one that matches the finer details. The bonnet vents and the dip in the running board for the spare wheel must be the most distinctive features. Would anyone care to have a guess?

Words: Zack Stiling
Photograph: Stiling Collection

Aggiunga un commento...