The Motor Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The Motor Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, silver medal, 1908, by H. von Herkomer, a woman leans on the front of a car with a banner across her inscribed, FUTURE, rev. WON BY / MISS S. THOMPSON/ KENSINGTON A. C. / SECOND ANNUAL GYMKHANA/ JUNE 1908, 72 mm. Rubbed on the high points, otherwise extremely fine and rare, a wonderful period piece. £Sold

Sir Hubert von Herkomer, RA (1849-1914), artist and pioneer motorist, lived at Bushey, Herts. A very mechanically-minded individual, von Herkomer was already using a home-made camera obscura in connection with his art by 1870, and by the 1890s he had fully embraced the freedom of the roads offered by the new safety bicycle and, later, the motorcycle. He bought his first car, a Panhard, in 1903, joining the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland (which became the RAC in 1907) in the same year. By 1906 he was the owner of a 28hp Daimler. Von Herkomer's Motoring of 1906, together with the medal he executed for the Royal Automobile and Associated Clubs in 1908 (Attwood, The Medal 4, p.9), are believed to be his only two medallic works.

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