A MATCHLESS OPPORTUNITY
Rare V4 tops the bill for forthcoming auction at Yorkshire stately home
Following their successful classic motorcycle and car sale last year Dee, Atkinson & Harrison (DAH), the Yorkshire-based auction house have unearthed something really special for their sale on March 4. Alongside around 15 other motorcycle lots to be offered at Sledmere House, Sledmere, Yorkshire, pride of place has to go to this 1933 Matchless Silver Hawk.
In fully restored condition, with an estimate of £45,000-55,000, the bike has a lot of local history and DAH advise that, since the completion of the restoration, the bike has only been run for around half an hour, so it will require some degree of recommissioning and careful running in. Only around 500 Silver Hawks were produced between 1931 and 1935 according to DAH’S Andrew Spicer and it’s thought that only 60 survive. The most recent example to be offered at auction sold for $80,000 (£63,824) at Bonhams Las Vegas sale in January 2015, making this an extremely rare opportunity to acquire one of the 600cc V4s.
The narrow-angle, ohc V4 engine of the Silver Hawk is based on the design of the Matchless Silver Arrow V-twin – though, naturally, doubled up. At the time of its launch, Matchless claimed it was the only four-cylinder machine with a sprung frame on the market. Cantilever rear suspension, with a pair of spring units mounted horizontally under the saddle, and girder forks provided a supremely comfortable ride and the 85mph four was just the sophisticated machine Matchless had set out to build. This example was registered in March 1933 and last taxed for the road in 1957. Upon the owner’s death in 2009, the bike was sold at auction (by Bonhams at Harrogate) for £28,000. Subsequently meticulously restored by the purchaser Don Law and (after Don’s death) completed by Pete Autherson from Hull. The matching numbers machine is in original condition, save for a Norton rear brake linkage and a modern, pattern speedometer and is being offered with replacement RF60, a V5C, the last two tax discs from 1957 and 1958, a Silver Hawk Model B instruction book and various receipts and photographs.