Items for the Lowcock cycling archive sold at Lawrences of Crewkerne for £6500, including a photo of the man himself and examples of his many medals.
Cycling went through a boom period in the 1890s, becoming a craze thanks partly to the advent of the safety bicycle.
New technology such as pneumatic tyres and chain-driven wheels made it far easier to get around and much faster.
Clubs proliferated, such as the Manchester Wheelers which dates back to 1883 – and is still going, one of the most successful in the UK.
Items for the Lowcock cycling archive sold at Lawrences of Crewkerne for £6500.
One member from its early years was Manchester-born Frederick Charles Lowcock (1876-1947), who became chairman and managing director of FC Lowcock & Co Glove Factory and later moved to the Isle of Man, where he was active in the Manx Wheelers Cycling Club and encouraging young cyclists.
Although the late 1890s produced a ‘cycle bubble’, when many British manufacturers went out of business amid falling demand, a collection of early cycling medals and ephemera relating to Lowcock shows that for many that mania continued, however.
Items for the Lowcock cycling archive sold at Lawrences of Crewkerne for £6500, including examples of his many medals.
Including 20 cased gold medals and 11 silver cased medals, comprising individual races and some tandem races too, the group was offered at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne on April 17 with an estimate of £3000-5000 and sold for £6500.
Lowcock’s medals are far too many to list here, but stretched well into the 1900s, such as a cased 9ct gold medal (100 Mile Unpaced Road Record Tandem Bicycle, Lowcock & Taylor 1909) or another for 50 Miles Road Unpaced Tandem Record 1907.
Items for the Lowcock cycling archive sold at Lawrences of Crewkerne for £6500, including examples of his many medals.
The collection also featured a scrap album including paper cuttings, birth certificate and marriage certficate; framed photographs including one of Lowcock, one with his children and fellow tandem rider Jimmy Taylor, and photographs from his 12 Hours Record in 1909; cycling race cards and ephemera, and 10 interesting Ride Liberty Tyres cards with cyclists on the reverse.
It had been consigned by a relative of Lowcock.
Simon Jones of Lawrences said: “This is the largest and most impressive cycling collection I have seen, dating from the very earliest early days of organised cycling races.
“Lowcock was obviously a very gifted rider and it’s marvellous to see so many gold and silver medals still in their original boxes.”
Sound the bugle
Buglet used by early cycling clubs, £650 at Charterhouse.
Another intriguing lot from the early days of cycling came up at Dorset saleroom Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium) on April 3 in the Automobilia & Enamel Sign Auction.
It was a silver-plated bugle, made by Henry Keat and called a buglet, and used by early cycling clubs. The bugler announced when the cyclists were to mount, move off, slow down, be aware of other road users, tackle dangerous descents or to dismount.
Measuring just 7½in (18.5cm), it was engraved Presented by the Lewes Bicycle Club won by J Andrews Jnr July 11th 1878. With “one large dent” and “some of the plate worn but not pitted”, it sold in Sherborne for £650 on thesaleroom.com against a guide of £100-150.
Buglet used by early cycling clubs, £650 at Charterhouse.
Richard Bromell of Charterhouse said the buglet was found “in a Dorset cottage which we cleared. He was keen on anything sport related, cricket in particular.
“It sold to a classic and vintage car restorer south of London specialising in high-end vehicles such as Bugatti and Voisin.”
Tram car sold
Bournemouth & Poole tram car No 113, £3000 at Charterhouse.
Also offered in the Charterhouse auction on April 3 was a Brush Electrical Engineering Co tram car catalogued as “ideal for restoration or even conversion into additional living/guest/teenage accommodation, a writing or artist studio, office or even as an Airbnb business”.
The Bournemouth & Poole car No 113, about 23ft 4in long x 6ft 5in wide (7.1 x 1.96m) wide, had been adapted for use as an office but retained most of the glass to the overhead sections and signage – including the warning Do Not Spit in the Car.
Sign in Bournemouth & Poole tram car No 113, £3000 at Charterhouse.
The car remained on site for the sale, at Plankbidge of Dorchester, a firm known for making shepherd’s huts.
It sold on low estimate at £3000 via a phone bid to a Charterhouse client based south of Bath who knew the vendor whom he met back in 1976.
