Jesse Walker sent an old family photo showing the family - named Harper - of his 2nd great grandfather in Nottingham in 1913 (when cars were very rare..! ) with his wife in the background and his four children in the car. His great grandfather probably took the picture himself.
We think the low radiator and the sharp edged bonnetare are most probably the best details to work with. But Jesse is not only curious what make of motorcar this can be. "Any info at all on the car would be appreciated, such as how would someone buy a car like this? Where was it made, purchased, shipped? I've had a look at other cars from 1913 or before and they look absolutely nothing like this one."
We asked Jesse to give some more background to the photo. To our experience this always adds a lot to the story.
" It's my great grandmother's family, with surname Harper. She's the one on the far right (back left seat of the car). The family had built up quite some money from a simple background. The father started as a bricklayer around 1880 when he was in his very early teens and steadily built up a construction empire doing all sorts of work (as can be seen on his sign in the background - "Builder & Contractor"). The son (the very dapper gent in the driving seat) had been to Nottingham Boys High School. He died in Belgium in 1918 aged 27, so the family money went to the three daughters.
The daughters lived long lives into the 1970s/1980s and never had to work a day in their lives. The story goes that they owned about 400-600 houses between themselves (a very conservative estimate in today's money would be about £100M if each house was worth £200K).. but there's nothing to show for it these days. All disappeared through mismanagement I'm told.
The father died in 1950 with an estate worth £58000, when the average UK annual salary was just over £100.. so yes, quite some means.
Well, we agree it is a high quality car. The details are to be produced by our knowlegeable audience.