I purchased this as an unidentified ‘mystery’ bike in 2019, hence my photo session outside ‘Mystery House’ in Brighton. With such a distinct ‘open’ frame design, you’d think it would have been easy to find its maker. However, after more than a week perusing advertisements and catalogues of the era, I found dozens of similar designs, but none of them was exactly the same. So I contacted Andrew Millward as I knew he had seen the bike before. He told me that it had previously belonged to his friend John Ivans, who had thought that it was a Lovelace because of the rear wheel spoking. To confuse matters, Lovelace did indeed advertise a ‘Little Wonder’ with open bottom bracket in 1891.
“I recall John buying this machine over 30 years ago and he didn’t know what it was, but I did suggest to him once I’d got to know more about old bicycles, that it was very likely to be a James Rickard Double Diamond frame ‘Westminster’. I have only seen a Rickard DD tricycle which is illustrated in HH Griffin Cycles of the Season, 1892, page 92, but the bicycle frame appears to be the same configuration as the tricycle.”
View in the Online Bicycle Museum
BICYCLE COLLECTORS CURATED ONLINE AUCTION, CHRISTMAS 2024 – JANUARY 2025
This Timed Auction is live from 20th of December 2024 to 26th of January, 2025. Highest bid wins.
NO BUYERS or SELLERS PREMIUM.
THE RESERVE IS THE START PRICE + BUY-IT-NOW OPTION.
INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY: NO PACKING FEES.
BIDDING INCREMENTS: Up to £1000 = £10. Over £1000 = £50. Over £2000 = £100
IT’S A CURATED AUCTION – Colin is the auctioneer and is available to chat to you personally during the auction (or before) by email, text message, phonecall, Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp.
