Barn Finds

Bentley brace and Rolls 20hp return home after 60 years hidden away in rural Ohio

American-bound Bentleys resurface after a lifetime in shipping containers

Many of us assumed this kind of barn find no longer exists – a vintage Bentley, a vintage Rolls-royce and a post-vintage Derby Bentley squirrelled away in a rural building since 1960.

Parker Snyder, a resident of a tiny community in Ohio called Bursville, acquired all three between 1957 and 1960. He didn’t use any of them for long before they were stored indoors. The 1926 Rollsroyce open tourer seems never to have been fully removed from the shipping crate in which it was exported from the UK.

Unfortunately, we can’t ask Mr Snyder why he never put the car on the road, or why the others – still in fundamentally sound condition, considering the time elapsed – were taken off the road, because he died in 1994. A British collector then became aware of the cars and tried to buy them from the family, finally succeeding after 25 years of gentle persistence. They returned to the UK this year.

‘The 1934 Bentley 3½-litre Vanden Plas tourer was used by Mr Snyder’s wife as a summer car,’ says Guy Newton of Bonhams, who auctioned the cars at their RAF Museum Hendon sale. ‘There are photos of it being used to take the kids to school. It’s still in surprisingly good condition – the doors shut beautifully.’

The 1926 Bentley Red Label tourer was Mr Snyder’s summer transport from his importing of it in 1957, until 1960 when internment began. The man from whom he bought it was apparently a doting owner; a plaque commemorating victory in a Bentley Drivers’ Club show in 1949 is still fixed to the dashboard.

The 1926 Rolls 20hp was a works test mule and acquired its current body, by Park Ward in Barker style, when only a year or two old. It sold for £34,500 all-in and will be staying in the UK. The 1934 VDP tourer made £159,850 and will be mechanically recommissioned for road use; the £287,500 1926 3-litre Red Label is Us-destined.