Sold: Dec 6, 2015

Found on BONHAMS website

1929 Bentley 4½-Litre Tourer
Coachwork by Vanden Plas
Sold for £667,900 inc. premium

*One of 665 made
*Matching chassis, engine and registration numbers
*Many years on museum display
*Well documented ownership

Clare Hay's authoritative work, Bentley, The Vintage Years, records that the car offered here - chassis number 'MR3399', fitted with engine number 'NX3451' - was completed in June 1929 fitted with four-seat tourer coachwork by London-based coachbuilder Vanden Plas. The original registration was 'DV 1262'. Vanden Plas had been founded in Belgium in the 19th Century, gaining a British offshoot when Warwick Wright obtained the UK rights to the name in 1913. After an uncertain start and numerous changes of ownership, the British firm went on to forge its not inconsiderable reputation by a most fortuitous alliance with Bentley, bodying some 700-or-so of the latter's chassis during the 1920s, including the Le Mans team cars.

This Bentley's first owner was one W F P Kelly. Copy correspondence on file from the next owner, Henri Girod-Eymery of Uzès, France, states that Kelly, a friend of his, had used the car, with long periods of idleness, up to 1962 before selling it. This letter, dated December 1968, states that Kelly had died 'a few years ago'. Reputedly, the engine had only one valve grinding at around 38,000 miles but nothing else. Girod-Eymery estimates the total mileage covered by that time (1968) as around 70,000. The rest of this correspondence concerns the despatch of major engine components (cylinder block, con-rods, valves, etc) to Messrs Hofmann & Burton of Henley-on-Thames for overhaul.

Prior to its sale to Girod-Eymery, the Bentley appears to have been registered to a museum, the Mecanique Ancienne Association de la Locomotion in Uzès, as evidenced by a registration document on file dated 30th August 1960. 'MR 3399' was subsequently loaned by an unnamed private collector to the Musée National de l'Automobile in Mulhouse, formerly the Schlumpf Museum Collection. Museum correspondence on file dated 31st August 1988 remarks that the Bentley is particularly 'noteworthy for its original mechanical condition'.

In February 1996 the car was offered for sale at a UK auction where it was purchased by Gordon Willey, and on 22nd March that year was reregistered with its original number, 'DV 1262'. The principal documentation on file appertaining to Gordon's period of ownership consists of an invoice dated 1st August 2001 from Chris Shenton Enngineering of Hanford, Staffordshire for overhauling the fuel and ignition systems plus various other works. The Bentley was then submitted for MoT testing and a certificate issued on 9th August 2001 at 63,167 miles (on file). More recently the car has been in storage at the premises of marque specialists P&A Wood. Offered with a V5C registration document, 'MR 3399' represents a rare opportunity for collectors to obtain a highly original Cricklewood Bentley that has had relatively few owners and spent much of its life on museum display.

"I used to own a very large old photograph of this car, possibly from the late 1920s or early 30s judging by the ladies outfit. Unfortunately, not a great photograph of the original."