1897 Marriott & Cooper Humber Safety Road Racer
Model No 2
22″ Frame
30″ Front wheel
28″ Rear wheel
Frame No 53252
(Now sold)
This fabulous lightweight road racer with an upward sloping top tube was built by the ‘alternative’ Humber maker Marriott & Cooper, who used older Humber parts and had a strong export market. The frame number is from 1897, as are the cottered pedal cranks, but Humber stopped building this style of frame in 1894.
The idea of the upward sloping top tube with a smaller diameter rear wheel (28″ rear and 30″ front) was that a rider with shorter legs would be able to ride a larger machine. It also saved the manufacturer having to supply different size frames. Although all the leading British cycle makers had by this time moved on to bicycles with horizontal top tubes, there was still an active market for this older frame design, particularly around the world and in provincial areas, where a lower purchase price was more important than the latest fashion.
This rare survivor is in excellent all round condition, having been restored many decades ago by the Payne family; I bought it from Nick Payne who had owned it for fifteen years. It’s ready to ride.
Humber, Marriott & Cooper was formed in 1877. Thomas Rushforth Marriott was Captain of the Nottingham and Notts Tricycle Club, and Fred Cooper was a noted professional rider. After Marriott and Cooper left to form their own company in 1885, by arrangement with Thomas Humber, the two firms shared the right to the use of the name ‘Humber’ and any of the patents of the previous firm.
However, shortly after the dissolution, Humber & Co. Ltd began advertising that they had the genuine ‘Humber’ and sought to register the name as their trade mark. Marriott & Cooper obtained a court ruling upholding their right to use the name and they also prevented the trade mark registration by Humber & Co.
Marriott & Cooper did extensive business in Australia, Belgium and Russia and was based initially at 65a Holborn Viaduct, London, subsequently moving to 9 Holborn Viaduct in 1889 and two years later to 1 Holborn Viaduct, and at Garfield Road, Coventry, where they remained until 1899. However, for many years the firm had no works of its own. They sold ‘Humber’ machines made by D. Rudge & Co. up to 1895 when they set up their own factory in Coventry. Montague Napier, later of motor car fame, was manager of this factory for about a year. The company made ‘Humber’ high-wheelers from 1885-89 and c.1892 a geared front-driver with a wheel of 40-46”. There was also the ‘Ripley’ tricycle and ‘Olympia’ tandem tricycle built for them by D. Rudge & Co. from 1887. When Walter Phillips, an old racing colleague of Fred Cooper, left D. Rudge & Co. and joined Humber & Co. Ltd in 1893 the Marriott & Cooper machines were built at the Humber & Co. factory.
Marriott & Cooper was purchased by Humber Extension Co. in 1898. Messrs Marriott and Cooper retired at that point but continued to advise for a while on a retainer. Marriott then went to France as a Humber representative.
[information from Ray Miller’s Encyclopaedia]
1896 MARRIOTT & COOPER CATALOGUE EXTRACTS
1895 MARRIOTT & COOPER CATALOGUE EXTRACTS
