Footnotes

Established component suppliers to the British motor industry, the Staffordshire-based firm of Harper Sons & Bean had turned its Dudley and Tipton factories over to munitions production during the Great War. With hostilities at an end, the company sought to keep its plant and workforce occupied by turning to motor manufacturing, acquiring the rights to the pre-war Perry 11.9hp from Willys-Overland. The Perry was powered by a 1,796cc sidevalve four with fixed cylinder head, which drove via a cone clutch, separate three-sped gearbox and spiral bevel rear axle. Ambitious production targets were set but these were never achieved, and at the end of 1920 the company was wound up, re-emerging some twelve months later in reconstituted form. The Twelve was still the mainstay of production and would remain so until 1927. A 2.4-litre 14hp model was added to the range in 1924 followed by Bean's first six – the Meadows-engined 18/50hp – in 1926. That same year Harper Bean, as it had become known, was taken over by its steel suppliers, Hadfield's of Sheffield, after which the cars were marketed as 'Hadfield-Bean'. Towards the decade's end Hadfield's decided to concentrate on the production of commercial vehicles and the last passenger cars were made in 1929. Within a few years the commercials too had been dropped, though the Bean company would continue as a component supplier into the post-war era.

This Bean Model 6 'Short 14' was exported new to Australia in rolling chassis form and bodied locally in Adelaide, South Australia. In 1937 the car was purchased from Mervyn Radford, a motor dealer in Renmark, by Mr R C Tidy. It was Mr Tidy's first car and he was taught how to drive it by his son (see letter on file). The Tidys kept the Bean for the next 30 years before selling it in 1967 to Mr Chris Catt of Adelaide, from whom it was purchased by the Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway collection in 1998 (see letter on file). The B&WLR carried out some mechanical work (reconditioning the rear axle) to bring the Bean up to first class condition, and in April 2001 the car was awarded a shield as 'Best Bean' completing the Maidenhead-Bournemouth 'Daffodil Run', which involved covering 240 miles that weekend.
Since its acquisition from the B&WLR circa 2010, 'SV 8671' has remained in professional storage and been serviced annually by its custodians. Running and driving well, the car is offered with the aforementioned correspondence, some 1970s photographs and an owner's handbook. There is no registration document with this Lot, which is offered without reserve.