Beskrivning
Bonhams are delighted to offer at our forthcoming Collectors' Motor Car Auction on Saturday 7th September 2019 at The Beaulieu International Autojumble, England 126 collectors motor cars – plus over 400 lots of automobilia and 30 motorcycles. The full online catalogue can be viewed on the Bonhams website.
FROM A DECEASED'S ESTATE, THE EX- JEREMY THORPE
1966 HUMBER IMPERIAL SALOON PROJECT
REGISTRATION NO. FAF 350D
CHASSIS NO. Bthe details belowBWHSO
£3, 000 - 4, 000
€3, 300 - 4, 400
To be sold without reserve
Ultimate version of the Super Snipe, the Imperial boasted a superior equipment level and Borg-Warner automatic transmission as standard. This example of Humber's stylish luxury saloon formerly belonged to the controversial politician, the Rt Hon Jeremy Thorpe MP, member of parliament for the constituency of North Devon and leader of the Liberal Party between 1967 to 1976. Thorpe had been given the Humber by his predecessor as Liberal Party leader, the Rt Hon Jo Grimond MP. Thorpe's trial for the attempted murder of his lover, Norman Scott, and subsequent fall from grace was dramatised in BBC TV's 2018 drama series, A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant as Jeremy Thorpe. On the occasion of Thorpe's funeral in 2014, the then North Devon MP Nick Harvey recalled: "He had a style all of his own. Brown trilby hat, waistcoat and gold watch chain, and driving around in a legendary big black Humber, still in a barn not far from Barnstaple" (press cutting on file).
Jeremy Thorpe gave the Humber to the vendor's late father, a friend of the Thorpe family, around the mid-1980s, since when it has been barn stored with a seized engine. Offered for restoration and sold strictly as viewed, the car comes with old-style V5 documents recording Jeremy Thorpe as the previous owner.
