Found Glass Plate. Any Vintage Car Experts?

I just bought this printing out frame yesterday from a fleamarket. It contains

a cracked half plate glass negative of a car which I have removed and

photographed with a digicam on the lightbox. See the larger pic if you want to

have a go at idenfification.<br>

Cheers, Steve<div></div>

Here is the positive image<div></div>

old Ford?

I don't know what that is, but what a neat find.

The only American car it resembles might be an early REO, but looking at the architecture it may very well be European.Try some of the antique car sites maybe some of there experts can identfy it.

What a beauty! And just look at the size of that windshield! Thanks for posting it.

The bonnet shape and vents have the look of a 1906ish Panhard & Levassor, as in this picture: http://www.svvs.org/genpics/1906_Panhard_&_Levassor.jpg

 

Any other offers?

I bet the windshield was plain ol' plate glass. Wonder where they put they airbags?

Looking through my old copy of "The Pictorial History of the Automobile, " which had a good retrospective view of all the American brands that survived into 1953, it's pretty clear it's not one of the major American makes. It comes close in appearance to a Ford Model N, but it's not a precise match. I'm guessing vintage somewhere around 1904, which means it could be any number of marques long long forgotten either here or in Europe. The square-topped radiator seems not to have been all that common, though, so there's still some hope of narrowing it down. I'll dig up a little more if I have time. Somewhere I have a couple of old Floyd Clymer books of vintage advertising, and if I find them, I'll see if a match comes up. Great find, anyway.

Maybe it was an American car built somwhere between 1900 and 1910. Back then American

cars were pretty well engineered (probably better than today) and comparable to the

European Marques. Here is a website that might give some direction.

http://www.campbellriversales.com/vintage_1900_1909.htm

 

My guess is that it might have been a Cadilac crafted at a time when the marque was

comparable to Bentleys and Royces.<div></div>

I would prefer to drive to red job. But where are the lights?

There's one little red flashing light on the back end for bad weather, so that silver German

and yellow French cars can see were to go.<div></div>

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Based on the hood, radiator and fender detail I'd start looking into the Italian automaker of Minutoli-Millo. First decade of the 20th Century.

Steve,

 

Great discovery. Thanks for posting.

The building stones look distinctly like those here in UK and the car seems to be right hand drive - is that significant?

I think most cars whether NA or European were RHD (could be wrong). Correction from my

above post-Bentley started building cars in the 20's.<div></div>

Cadillacs of that era do not appear to have had a rectangular radiator shell.

Wow, bucket seats. ;)

The rear lamp is covering a name that apparently ends in 'E'.

That letter is a 2 I think and it looks so like a UK number plate. I've asked the question (and put a link) on a British forum ... pretty sure we'll get an answer.

Thanks Roger. My task for this evening was to find a vintage car forum to raise this with. I am in the UK so I suspect the picture was taken here even if the vehicle is not native. I will be interested to see what response it provokes.<br>

I just wish there was some way of mending the plate as I am having to handle it with kid gloves at present.

I've tarted the photo up a little and put it here ...

 

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/571455/an/0/page/0#571455

 

One chap is on the case :)

Hi Steve,

 

The car that you have on the positive image is a 1905 Oldsmobile.

"The car that you have on the positive image is a 1905 Oldsmobile."

 

The hood shape does not match the shape of the 1905 Olds touring car. The Olds touring car had front and rear seats. The other Olds model available was the "curved dash" - and, obviously, this picture is not of an Olds curved dash automobile.