Registration No: TAR 904
Chassis No: 120
MOT: Exempt

• Veteran Car Club Dated and complete with Dating Certificate
• A once-regular runner in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run
• Simple to operate with a conventional three pedal layout
• Charming history file complete with a buff log book dating back to 1954
• Offered with moulds for casting of a new cylinder

American Civil War veteran Colonel Albert Pope had created his bicycle-building empire in the 1880s and it was a natural progression to enter the automobile business, first with Columbia electric vehicles from 1897, followed by five other Pope makes, the best known of which are probably the Pope-Hartford and the Pope-Toledo – the names reflecting the location of their factories and made by the Pope Manufacturing Co. and the Pope Motor Co. respectively. Also made by the Manufacturing Co., at a factory in Hagerstown, Maryland, was the Pope-Tribune, a small car that took cues from European marques. It was introduced early in 1904 and production continued for two years, with steady developments to the specification. The initial examples had a 6hp engine with a water-cooled cylinder-head and an air-cooled barrel, rear-mounted gearbox, braking only on the transmission, and a De Dion-style 'coal-scuttle' engine cover. Towards the end of the year a fully water-cooled larger engine became standard encased in a more modern bonnet and the radiator was moved out forward of the chassis. The gearbox was relocated to a central position, necessitating placing the gear lever on the right to join a handbrake lever required for rear-wheel brakes that became a standard fitment. This was catalogued as the 'Improved' Model II.

Chassis 120 has a long history in the British veteran car scene and has survived in charming ‘oily rag’ condition. Its recorded history begins in 1954, when its logbook was issued to Dr. Joseph William Edward Fellows of Ware, Hertfordshire. The 1950s was a period of burgeoning interest in early cars, partly owing to the popularity of the 1953 comedy film Genevieve, but it was also a time when they were widely available and relatively cheap – many were languishing in scrapyards or old farm buildings, and there was no shortage of amateur restorers willing to save them.

Our Pope-Tribune had evidently been such a car, because it required extensive restoration prior to being put back on the road. The early Veteran Car Club Dating Certificate no. 439, issued on 30th October 1954, noted that it had a ‘Replica body and bonnet, drum brakes added, carburettor not original’. The restoration was typical of the period, with the car receiving an attractively jaunty paint job and a simple bonnet in the make-do-and-mend manner of the time. As such, it presents as a rare and genuinely historic souvenir of a period when the hobby was in its infancy.

The Pope continued to be enjoyed through the 1960s, as evidenced by a string of Ministry of Transport Test Certificates. In 1963, it was acquired by Sharpe’s Autos (Landon) Ltd. – home of the famous Sharpe Collection. While operating the Gables Service Station in Rayleigh, Essex, the Sharpe family were among the foremost collectors of veteran and vintage cars in the second half of the 20th century. Some of their cars were kept in use, such as the Pope-Tribune, which they last used for the 1996 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, while others sat awaiting restoration. The Pope remained in the collection until it was dispersed at a huge sale in 2005, where it was purchased by the present owner for his small stable of early cars. He immediately began recommissioning it for the 2005 Brighton Run, and it participated in several Brightons thereafter up to 2012.

In recent years, the Pope has been out of use so will require some sympathetic recommissioning. With its beautifully patinated 1950s paint and upholstery, it represents an excellent candidate for preservation and is sure to be much admired the next time it tackles the London to Brighton. The well-stocked history file includes the 1954 buff logbook and Dating Certificate, some later V5s and several historic MoT certificates.

For more information, please contact:
Lucas Gomersall
lucas.gomersall@handh.co.uk
07484 082430