1869 Velocipede (built by A. Favre?)
40.5″ Front wheel
34.5″ Rear wheel
(Now sold)
This velocipede was originally owned by a cycle manufacturer of the late 1890s in Newcastle, who then turned to making motorcycles until he passed away in 1924. It has been passed down through generations of his family as a family heirloom until I purchased it recently from his great-grandchildren. We don’t know if he built it, if it was built by a local company where he worked, or if it was part of his personal collection.
Presumably, as it has a damaged pedal crank and one missing pedal, it was taken off the road, perhaps even as long ago as 1924, and that’s the reason it’s in such superb condition now. As you can see, the metalwork and wheels have stood the ravages of time due to it being stored inside the house. The only thing lost (apart from one pedal) is the leather on the saddle.
The fine details of this machine are splendid: the amount of work that has gone into the metalwork marks it out as a top quality velocipede of its day. I suspect that it’s French, and as the top spring has a very distinctive curve at the rear end, I wonder if it has a connection to A. Favre, one of the earliest French manufacturers who used a similar spring design. Favre made various different styles and I’ve not found any pictures of one of his models with other features that correspond. But I have noticed that other French makers (such as Bajard of Roanne and David of Orleans) copied this style of spring, and British builders also often copied French designs …so I’ll keep researching it.
One thing puzzled me – it has a double top spring. An extra spring bolted on top can mean a repair to a broken spring, though that is not the case here. So this must have been a preventative measure to stop the spring sagging. Perhaps this was an inherent issue because of the curve at the rear of the spring, and the reason so few other builders used that design. Presumably the maker of this velocipede learned of the issue and decided to improve the design.
SIMILAR SPRING DESIGN
These photos are from Robert Sterba’s website: please see the link at the bottom of this page.
Thanks to Robert Sterba for his illustrated list of French velocipede makers – https://www.sterba-bike.cz/item/manufacturers-and-inventors-of-velocipedes-france-1865-1872?lang=EN
