Lot Ended
Description
Unfinished restoration with much work done; bills for over £75k;
engine, gearbox, brakes, steering, suspension all rebuilt; runs and drives;
needs final detailing and finishing; extremely rare, one of perhaps 10
surviving
Don’t let the looks deceive you –
this Humber may appear rather sorry but over the last dozen years it has been
treated to a meticulous restoration by some of the best names in the business
with bills on file amounting to… [we advise the
vendor’s wife to leave the room now] …well over £75,000.
Our vendor originally owned this Vogue 12hp from
1964 – 1968. In March 2013 it appeared in a Richard Edmonds auction where he
bought it back again for £5,264. At this point it was still in not unreasonable
shape, as you can see in photos 49 – 55.
Dreaming of returning it to showroom condition, our vendor then
embarked on an epic restoration which soon got wildly out of
hand.
The body was removed from the car and sent
to Trevor J Hirst Coachwork of Dorset where it was completely rebuilt with new
ash frame sections as required. Such is the quality of the steel originally
used, the only new metal required was for the lower door-skins and the luggage
boot base and sides. Nonetheless, the bill came to just over
£27,000.
The chassis was sent to Cleaning
Consultants of Loxwood where it was bead blasted to remove all the paint and
zinc phosphate treated to keep the tinworm at bay – another
£2,200.
The engine was fully rebuilt by Saunders
Motor Works of Southampton, with new pistons, liners, bearings, reground crank
etc - another £5,500.
A new dashboard was made by
Former Glory of Frome – a paltry £340.
Another
£42,000 was spent at Blue Diamond of Bicester – gearbox; clutch; axle;
brakes; suspension; cooling system; instruments; wiring; brightwork; fuel tank;
wheel bearings; tyres plus much else besides.
The
vendor states: “The seats are in good order but covered in fawn PVC. The rest of
the trim is beyond recovery but can be used for patterns. The car has been
assembled for fit but now will need wings off etc for painting. A total retrim
would do credit to this rare and attractive car. The owner must now sell due to
health issues”.
He has also provided the
following information about the model:
1934
Humber Vogue 12hp
"The Humber Twelve of
the period offered several body styles, a four-door saloon, a two-door drophead,
and a two-door saloon, reputedly designed by Captain Molyneux to catch the eye
of female customers. This was one of the earliest serious attempts by a car
manufacturer to produce a product aimed specifically at women.
Captain Molyneux is best remembered as
a fashion designer and perfumier. Based in Paris from 1919, he was a favourite
haute couture designer for many members of the British Royal family, notably
Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent; Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Gertrude
Lawrence and Vivian Leigh were also clients. Molyneux famously stated that ‘No
woman can be too rich or too slim.’
In
1932 Molyneux opened a fashion house in London, which might well have been the
time when Humber, newly acquired by the Rootes Group, commissioned him to design
the Vogue saloon, a style that today may more correctly be called a fixed head
coupé.
The press release for the Vogue
stated that it had been designed in collaboration with Captain Molyneux. This
wording is critical, as it does not claim that he is the originator of the car’s
swooping design. In 1932 The French Delage company commissioned Letourneur &
Marchand to clothe a D8 chassis in stylish coachwork reflecting the current
design trend known as Art Deco. The resulting body is very, very similar to the
Humber Vogue’s, albeit a little more elegant with its much longer chassis [see
last two photos].
The Humber Twelve
chassis was introduced in 1933 with a 1,669 cc engine, which was pure Rootes
Group in design, coupled to a four-speed gearbox with ‘silent third’ and a
freewheel controlled by a dash mounted push/pull button. A Lucas Startix unit
was fitted which allows the dynamo/motor to charge the battery with the engine
running, but will re-start the engine, drawing battery power if the car stalls.
This feature is activated if the ignition key is turned to the right, but when
the key is turned to the left, the steering wheel mounted starter switch can be
used in the normal way.
This is a rare
‘first Series’ car, with chromed radiator grille and movable shutters.
Altogether much more attractive coachwork than the later ‘second series’
version. As far as I am aware, fewer than 10 Humber Vogues are known to survive
today."
This unfinished project comes with a
large and interesting history file including the original buff logbook and green
continuation logbook; old style V5; many invoices; correspondence; handbooks;
maintenance manuals; press cuttings; period road tests; technical literature
plus many photos of the restoration on a USB stick, a small selection of which
are shown here.
Gamely on offer at no reserve, we
implore you to bid generously so we can at least return the vendor a consolatory
fraction of the vast amount invested to date.
Get creative with your
angle grinder and this voguish Humber could indeed look even more like
the sublime Delage D8 that so clearly inspired him from the outset...
Consigned by James
Dennison – 07970 309907 – [email protected]