Crossley Brothers was set up in 1867 by Francis and Wlliam at Great Marlborough Street in Manchester city centre manufacturing pumps, presses and small steam engines. They established Crossley Motors Ltd in 1906 as a separate identity building quality motor vehicles, lorries and later buses. The brothers were committed Christians and strictly teetotal refusing to supply their products to companies such as breweries that they did not approve of. They adopted the early Christian symbol of the Coptic Cross as the emblem to use on their road vehicles.
The company came out of the Great War in good financial shape. There was a controlled release of surplus 20/25 military cars onto the world market and deliveries of the 25/30, that had been produced towards the end of the war, restarted to private buyers in February 1919 and continued until 1925. The car was slightly updated with a higher bonnet resulting in smoother scuttle line to the windscreen. The clientele of the firm at this time included King George V, the Prince of Wales, the Kings of Spain and Siam and Emporer Hirohito of Japan.
The Crossley 14 (called the 12/14 in the home market in 1922 and the 15/20 on the non European export market) was manufactured between 1922 and 1927. Many bodies were made on the chassis including two and four seater tourers and saloons, the rarest being the V screen.
BS 9199 was exported to New Zealand and little is known of its early life, but by 1994 Alan and Pratts of Wellington New Zealand had comprehensively restored it and won Vintage Car Club of New Zealand Colonial Cup. According to the Crossley register in 1999 it is the only known V screen in existence apart from one bulkhead and a box of spares. Repatriated to the UK in 2004 it was owned by Thomas Ritchie of Glenrothes in 2009 and in 2015 our vendor acquired her. He has kept her in concours condition, only being used for occasional rallies and picnic trips with a period wind up gramophone. The cataloguer was duly impressed by this car; the V screen and dashboard are a work of art and the quality of the restoration will not disappoint.
Sold with the V5C, various copies of the restoration and assorted paperwork, she will be driven to the auction, weather permitting.
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