Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Amazing Collection of Early French Motorcycles up for Auction

Coming up for auction at Retromobile Paris early next month is a quite extraordinary collection of early and rare French motorcycles (with the odd foreign interloper thrown in).

The calibre of the machines offered is such that many of them are unique examples and from the very dawn of motorcycling. The collection was the work of one man, a Monsieur Guélon, who fortuitously came across a pile of disassembled early motorcycles in a scrapyard in 1972. The pile was swapped for a large weight of scrap cutlery, formed the genesis of the collection, and was slowly assembled over the following 40 years. Another job lot from the same original source materialised in 1986 and enabled many of the machines to be completed.

Arcturial is the auction house handling the collection. The online catalogue can be found here, there are some very stunning motor cars offered before the bikes, but if you want to get straight there head to lot 201.

All of the machines offered have been standing for a long time and are projects. Whilst one hopes that the new owners preserve the patina of the machines and don't ruin them with a shiny restoration it would also be nice to think that many of them will get sympathetically renovated so that other enthusiasts can see them and experience them as more than static exhibits.

Lot 249, c1906 Anzani v3 race machine.

Lot 244, c1906 Werner parallel twin.

Lot 243, c1907 Rochet Type MG inline parallel twin.

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