Nick Larkin
Should the classic movement be more proactive?
Our Nick ponders how classic collections can be kept together.
We’re still reeling from the news of the massive auction of Rovers in which £6 (plus commission) would have bought you a project P5 and £2000 a rather nice P4 Cyclops. Okay, the sale of some 150 cars was in Australia but I was more than happy to cover it for PC after editor Danny instantly issued me with a first class Quantas air ticket (no, not one way!) a docket for a Leyland P76 private hire car and a booking for a spa room at the New South Wales Hilton under the names of Larkin, Mr N.P and Minogue, Miss K. Plus a big shipping container waiting on site for my purchases.
Then I woke up. That was a nice dream, but the auction definitely did happen. Sadly my only ‘visit’ to Australia had been via the internet and numerous late night (for us in Britain) phone calls to try and find out what on earth had been going on.
Secret squirrels
There had been some pre-sale publicity, but whereas any British auction house would have been happy to issue a full list of sale results, the Australian one certainly was not. In fact as time went on and my pleas became more desperate, it became obvious that I stood a greater chance of getting a full round-up of Slattery Auctions’ staff credit card details than how much the collection actually went for.
Mainly thanks to some great work courtesy of the Rover P4 Guild of Australia, auction visitors were tracked down as well as an official list of prices. Plus some photos… and what photos. The cars were collected over many years by the late Dr John Flynn, basically because his mum and HM Queen Elizabeth II had Rovers. Strewth – what a collection it was, compiled with serious love, effort and much cost. What a terrible shame that this hoard couldn’t somehow have been kept together.
Obviously nobody lives forever, and collections, be they of cars, records, photos of Hartlepool buses or beer mats (Watney’s 1956-70) are very much a personal thing. The collector/hoarder/lunatic
tends to buy what he or she really likes, or wants, to make their treasure trove as complete as possible. But some car collections, particularly those involving a complete quota of rare models, combined with a lifetime’s acquisitions of never found elsewhere literature are surely of immense importance to our heritage. Should the classic movement be more proactive in trying to ensure that if such accumalations can’t be kept together at least make sure that valuable spares and ephemera are not lost forever on their owner’s demise? Pre-publicity is so important.
Plan of action
Could the already overworked Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) help? Maybe there could be a system of collections being registered with the Federation, should the owners – who we are sure would like their lifetime’s work to continue and be recognised and enjoyed – agree. This could even be a forum for collections to be offered for sale as a whole, with funding from consortiums of enthusiasts and even manufacturers. Maybe there could be more organisations like the Rootes Archive Centre Trust, which has saved and stored irreplaceable historic material. I bet that despite the valiant efforts of enthusiasts, many of those Australian Rover spares ended up being lost. We can’t let things like this keep happening!
‘We just can’t let things like this keep happening’