The Percy Markham Collection

Shelly and I first visited the Whiteman Park Motor Museum in April 2010 and saw several of the remaining vehicles of the Percy Markham Collection on display  (http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2010/04/whiteman-park-motor-museum.html). I set out to find out what happened to the rest of the collection and that search led me to the Nazzaro and Percy's son, John Markham (http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2010/05/felice-nazzaro.html). 

John kindly provided me a list of the cars in the Percy Markham Collection and some details about them and I had the grand idea to create a little virtual online museum. This proved a little harder than I thought as some of cars are quite obscure. I remembered with some regret that when my brother Craig and I were in our early teens we'd bought a set of postcards from the West Australian Museum for all the cars in the collection. Although I am inveterate hoarder, my parents are not, and those postcards disappeared long gone. Many years later when I was clearing out some old boxes I came across the complete set. What a pleasant surprise! I had saved them after all.

Thanks to this freakish accident of preservation I am able to present here a 'virtual museum' of the Percy Markham Collection. Where appropriate I've attached the text of the postcard and credits in italics and also some of John's comments and memories.

John's list had 43 cars and I assumed the majority were included in the sale to the West Australian museum, a selection of which were later sold in a controversial sale in the 1980s. Details of the sale and controversy have been documented in research project by Dr Pauline Joseph of Curtin University: https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/42749 Dr Joseph's valuable research has addressed many myths and misunderstandings about the sale. Although the total Markham collection may have been 43 cars, Percy Markham only sold 22 of the rarest cars and 5 motorcycles to the museum. The balance of the collection were either retained by the Markham family or sold separately.

The museum auctioned 10 of the most valuable cars. 9 were sold at auction while the sale of the oldest car in the collection, the 1898 Star, fell through. The Star is now on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum. Several other Markham Collection cars are on display at Whiteman Park while the balance are in storage with the West Australian museum.

A multimedia presentation has been prepared by Dr Joseph's PHD student, Beata Dawson, which takes the viewer on a virtual reality tour of the Markham Collection. The presentation is here: http://beata-dawson.site/test.html

To round out the virtual tour of the Markham collection I obtained from Paul Blank a copy of the original auction catalogue  http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/percy-markham-collection-auction.html

The Percy Markham Collection

1898 Star 3 1/2 hp 'vis-a-vis' (Britain)

Early motor cars clearly show the influence of horse drawn vehicle design; this car is obviously a 'horselesss carriage'. The car, built in 1898, was one of the first ten built by the Star Motor Co., an offshoot of the Star Cycle Co.

The oldest vehicle in the Collection was purchased from a famous collection of veteran cars from Scotland called the Sword Collection. The Star was one of the 10 cars put up for auction. John Markham was determined to buy the car back for the family but was outbid by a local Perth 'high flyer' who offered way above the reserve. John couldn't match the offer and retired from the bidding. The buyer however wasn't serious and defaulted on his offer so Christies approached John directly. John was happy to buy the car for his last bid but Christies insisted he pay the defaulted wining bid. John declined and the car was returned to the museum. It is now on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum. It is the oldest motor vehicle in Western Australia.

1902 Oldsmobile 10 h.p. Curved-dash Runabout (USA)

"This was one of the first cars to reach Western Australia;it was owned originally by Mr Claude Deane. This car, like the "Star"shows clearly the influence of the horse-drawn carriage. Note the steering tiller, which is mounted on springing that acts both as a shock absorber and as a stabiliser."

This car is NOT a part of the Percy Markham collection. It was donated by the Deane family but was incorrectly ascribed to the Percy Markham in the postcard. It is now on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum after a controversial restoration.

1905 De Dion-Boulton 8 h.p. Two Seater (France)

"Count de Dion, a Parisian aristocrat, employed Messrs Boulton and Trepardoux in 1882 to build light carriages. After producing a bewildering variety of steamers, de Dion switched to the petrol engine. By 1895 the first 1/2 h.p engines were in production, followed soon after by more powerful types."
This car is on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum.

1904 Rover 8 h.p. Two-seater (Britain)

1904 Rover 8 h.p. Two-seater (Britain)
"Built only five years after the Star, this car shows the early development of conventional car layout, and little influence of the horse-drawn carriage."
This car is on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum.

1909 Renault 15/22 kw Limousine (France)

"An original example of a classic car made by one of the oldest established car manufacturers. It is fitted with a compressed air starter." Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.
This car was sold at auction.

1909/10 Minerva 22 kw Tourer (Belgium)

"Minerva was one of the best known Belgian makes, renowned for quality. This model was a sensation when first shown in 1908, as it incorporated a double sleeve-valve engine designed by C.Y. Knight." Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.
This car was sold auction.

1909 Sizaire-Naudin 9 kw Two-seater (France)

"A rare vehicle of the pioneering firm of the brothers Sizaire. M Sizaire has certified this care as a Type F Series 09 No. 153" Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.
This car was sold at auction.

1910 BSA (Britain)
This car is on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum.
http://www.bsafwdc.co.uk

1910 Model T Ford (USA)

I believe this car may be in storage.

1910 Hupmobile

The Hupmobile (on the left) was an American company that was later taken over by Chevrolet. On the right is the Sizaire-Naudin photographed at Percy's Antique Auto Museum in Wembley in 1968 by Andrew Brownell.

1911 Peugeot 22 kw Type 135 Tourer (France)

"Peugeot is one of the oldest French car manufacturers. This original car was purchased in Switzerland in 1966." Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.
This car was sold at auction.

1911 Rolls Royce 30/37 kw Landaulet "Silver Ghost" (Britain)

"The first six-cylinder Rolls Royce of 1906 was nickle plated and has silver and grey bodywork, leading to the popular name 'Silver Ghost'. This model - one of the great classic cars - continued in production with minor modifications until 1925." Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.
This Rolls was once owned by an Indian Maharaja. This car was sold at auction.

1913 Delage 15 kw HB Series 7 Tourer (France)

"Delage cars had a reputation for reliability, ease of handling and for being light on tyres. This car was purchased in Switzerland in 1966." Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.
This car was sold at auction.

1913 Nazarro (Italy)

One of only three surviving examples in the world. John Markham retained ownership of the car until it was sold at auction shortly before he passed away. http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2010/05/felice-nazzaro.html

1914 Detroit Electic Brougham (USA)

"The present-day widespread alarm about pollution of the environment has re-awakened interest in electric cars. It is interesting therefore to recall that from 1900 to 1915 at least twenty-five well known electric car companies advertised vehicles powered by batteries."
Ironically, this was written in 1980 - 31 years ago!! This car was owned by a little old lady in Perth who drove it from new until she died. It is on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum.

1920 Studebaker

This car is in storage with the West Australian museum.

1921 Stanley Steamer 20/60 h.p/ Tourer (USA)

"The present-day widespread alarm about pollution of the environment has re-awakened interest in steam as well as in electric cars. Steam is produced in steam cars by heating the boiler with an oil-burner. The Stanley Steamer had the longest production run of any steam car."
This car is now on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum.

1923 Vauxhall 30/98

The 98 reference was the car's advertised top speed. The car is on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum and is apparently one of the most valuable cars remaining in the collection.

1924 Rolls Royce 20hp light 6 ladies chauffeur driver car

This car is still on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum.

1926/27 Morris Cowley 'Bull-nose' Two-seater (Britain)

"One of the most popular vehicles of its day which helped William Morris outsell its competitors." Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.
This was Percy's first vintage vehicle. He bought the car as family project to teach his son's mechanical skills. It is still on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum.

1927 Ford T 16.7 kw Roadster (USA)

"This was one of the last of the various Fort T models which were produced from 1908 to 1927. This vehicle has travelled only about 8000 km and is in original condition." Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.

This is a photo of the car at West Australian museum storage facility taken by Dr Joseph in 2014 at a presentation in honour of the Markham family's substantial contribution to the museum. Percy's son's, Barry (suit on the left) and Roger (on the right in the check shirt) inspect the car. 

1927 Ford A

The first of the A model Fords. This example is on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum.

1927 Austin 7

One of several Austin's Percy owned. This one is still on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum. The Markham family have retained one of the other Austin 7s.

1927/8 Packard straight 8

This example is not Percy's car but it is on display at the Whiteman Park motor museum.

1928 Bentley 15 kw Sports Tourer (Britain)

"The Bentley had the reputation of being the best British sports car between World Wars I and II. In their famous 'British racing green' they dominated the Le Mans races in the 1920s." Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.

This car may be on display at Whiteman Park motor museum.

Here is a comment from Dean B, who worked on the restoration of this car as an apprentice.

Dear Paul,
Something sparked my memory of the Percy Markham collection, and through Google, found your excellent blog. I have a very distant connection with one of the cars from Percy's collection from around 1976 and you might find it faintly interesting. Allow me to explain...

I was an instrument making apprentice with a small business in Subiaco called 'Tisco 74 Pty Ltd' from 1975 to 1980. The owner (and my boss) was Stanley Tough who also had an interest in classic cars. Tisco was for many years one of the few businesses in Perth that could calibrate automotive instruments and became very well known as the place to have your car speedo checked - often as a result of a disputed speeding fine! We also made special parts where possible for just about any mechanical instrument.

In 1976, as a 16 year old apprentice, I remember being asked to make a some special parts for an old Bentley. They were the connector grips fitted to the ends of the spark plug leads and, in order to stay as close to the original parts as possible, we obtained some special black plastic rod which was the same stuff used back when this Bentley was made. Strange as it sounds, this plastic was actually made from sour milk and had been developed during World War One as a substitute for 'Bakelite' which was too brittle for some uses. I think this plastic was known as 'Casein'.

I wondered why I was being trusted to make parts like these for such a valuable car. As I started cutting the first piece of this special plastic in the lathe, the answer came to me. This stuff STANK! It smelled like milk that was very 'off' except many times stronger. Up until then, I had doubted that it really was made from milk - thinking it was one of those stories told to apprentices to see how gullible they are. Anyway, apart from the stench it actually machined quite nicely. I also made some brass inserts which went into these grips and these were like a miniature spear tip with a slot cut into the end to allow it to be slid onto the screw terminal of the old style spark plugs.

Percy Markham came into the workshop to pick them up and was impressed with how close to the originals they looked. I felt really proud that I'd made some parts for a classic car that were "as good as the originals".

Years later, when I heard that the collection had been purchased by the State Government and was to be sold off I felt quite sad that such a valuable collection was being broken up. But I had the satisfaction of knowing that somewhere out there is an old Bentley with some spark plug connectors made by me.

Cheers, Deano.

1933 Rolls Royce 30/37 kw Continental Sports Sedan (Phantom II) (Britain)

"This particular car was manufactured on 3 October 1933 and is authentic in every detail, including the original and elaborate tool kit." Photographed by Brian Stevenson. Printed by Crusader Press.

This car was restored by Jack Jefferies of Sydney. This car was sold at auction.

Leyland Double decker bus ex-London

This is a photo of the bus outside the York town hall. Details about the vehicle are contained in the link below: http://118.127.11.148/~perthbus/report.php?vid=RTL547

Link to the auction catalogue -  http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/percy-markham-collection-auction.html

The Markham's Aeronautical Legacy
Percy's sons, John and Barry Markham both shared an interest in aviation as well as classic cars. John Markham was the first person to fly a plane from the USA to Australia 'the long way round' over the North Pole to Perth.

The book of his travels is out of print now but second hand copies can still be found at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Long-Way-Home-John-Markham/dp/B008AV4LMO/ref=sr_1_35?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1531318759&sr=1-35&keywords=john+markham.

John owned and restored the original Royal Flying Doctor Services' first aeroplane, a De Havilland Fox Moth and several other planes. During his round the world flight he was forced to stop in a remote Indian airfield for several days. While there he noticed two De Havilland Tiger Moths and a a World War II Stinson air ambulance rotting at the side of the airfield. On his return he arranged to purchase all the planes and had them shipped to Australia. The Stinson was restored to flying condition but the Tiger Moths remained in storage at Jandakot airfield. The Stinson was sold several years before John passed.

Barry Markham also had a passion for Tiger Moths and recreated a pioneering solo flight from England to Australia in a De Havilland Tiger Moth in 1930. Barry's trip proved to somewhat more challenging as he was flying against the prevailing air currents. His adventures are published here: https://www.amazon.com/Solo-England-Barry-Markham/dp/1906050546 

Bay to Birdwood 2017

After arriving in Adelaide we caught up with fellow members of the Special Interest Vehicle Association. A formal catch up with fellow South Australian enthusiasts was organized for the Saturday before the Bay to Birdwood on the grounds of Carrick Hill stately home. A number of Club Auto Francais members attended and put on a good display.

Carrick Hill is only 20 minutes from central Adelaide. It has fine gardens and artworks on display. There was a wedding on that evening on the front lawn. www.carrickhill.sa.gov.au

The lawns are fine location for a small car show

All up more than a dozen vehicles showed up

Attending from SIVA were Rhys Mitchell and his son Alex in a Chevrolet Corvair Monza (above), Paul and Natalie Blank and family in a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Stef and Yvonne Brayley in their Alpine A110 and Peter Schelfhout in his Peugeot 404 (below).

Peter had driven over from Perth and only arrived that afternoon. The drive had proven quite challenging as the car had experienced some problems with tuning and seizing brakes.

A trio of Renault 8's

The Renault Caravelle on the left received a lot of attention. It is a very fine looking car with a body by Ghia, but underneath the sporty exterior is Renault 8 running gear.

The Bay to Birdwood starts at Barrett Reserve in the beachside suburb of Glenelg. Cars begin gathering at 6am and are parked up for the breakfast and display. We set off from Adelaide CBD around 7am but were delayed by carburetor issues. The car ran really rough in second and third before smoothing out in fourth, but in the suburban streets around the city we rarely got up to fourth. We arrived around 8am and parked up next to a couple of VW Kombis.

We hardly stepped out of the car before being swamped by people wanting to talk about the car. I like talking to people about the DKW but I was trying to give the carb a quick clean at the same time and it was a little frustrating.

As the SIVA crew were staying all over Adelaide and had set off at different times, we were scattered across the field. 1750 cars all in one place!! The sheer logistical effort involved in coordinating that many vehicles is amazing. By sheer luck we bumped into Rhys and Alex and Paul Blank and said our good mornings, then we were lost in the crowd.

A perennial crowd pleaser is the Delorean. There were four attending.

A great rarity in Australia - Saab 96 longnose. This was a V4 powered model.

A very fine Porsche 356

I think this Holden 48-215 (aka FX) was outside the age cut off, being built from 1948 to 1952, but might have been exempted due to the shut down of the Holden plant this year.

There was a lot of American iron around - as you must expect these days.  This was fine Cadillac Eldorado. I had always wanted one of these as a kid but my admit my tastes have changed a lot since then.

A lovely restored Volkswagen Karmann Ghia with correct paint scheme. Shelly chose to paint the roof of her Karmann Ghia white, which does look lovely of course, but the cherry red body originally came with a black roof.

A duo of French Sima Aronde's. A real pair of rarities. Simcas were manufactured in South Australia in the 1960s.

I think this Simca Aronde was one of the most interesting cars at the event.

This Buick had come over from Victoria.

This EH Holden is the spitting image of the one I owned in the 1990s.

A Saab Sonett in our rear view mirror.

At 9am the first cars were waved on their way. It was almost an hour before it was our turn to go. The car was still running rough but we were too preoccupied to care. The streets surrounding the reserve were filled with spectators lining the road. It was a cold morning with the threat of morning rain but they still came anyway, seated in folding chairs and wrapped up in coats and blankets. There were a lot spectators lining Anzac Highway all waving and pointing. It was excellent.

Driving towards the start.

Crowds on the median strip on ANZAC Highway.

The Saab Sonett overtakes us.

This year the route took us back through the centre of Adelaide. For the last couple of years the route has gone around the centre due to the traffic congestion it caused. Personally I think this was a mistake as there was a lot of traffic on the road (despite it being early on a Sunday morning in Adelaide!) and progress ground to a crawl. The slower we went the worse our car performed and we stuttered along, but at least we did not stall or overheat. Plenty of other cars did though. Among the 1750 cars big Australian and American cars predominated other vehicles and the slow going was tough on their big engines. The roadside was littered with overheated cars with their bonnets up. I think if the organizers want to do the city route next year they should restrict access on some of the roads so that the parade can be quickly waved through.

A fairly common sight during the crawl through the city. There were actually two Cadillacs parked on the roadside together.

We drove on north east towards the Adelaide Hills. Away from the city centre there were more spectators and lots of non-participating enthusiasts had bought their cars out of their garages and parked on their lawn in solidarity. I remember one house had a collection of classic Alfa-Romeos parked out the front while they waved and tooted their horns. The car continued to be troublesome though and I pulled over into a petrol station to clean the carb again and get a drink. Many other cars pulled over too for fuel, food, drink and use the toilet. The place was packed so we didn't get away for about 20 minutes. We still had problems but the car was running a little better.

The convoy had also spread out by now so we weren't jammed together. We could get up into fourth gear and get a bit of run. We were soon up in the Hills and the route to Birdwood was actually closed to general traffic. That meant we could tootle up the hills as slow as we needed to while the traffic went around us. I was surprised to note as we ground our way up in second gear (30 miles an hour) that a Ford Falcon GT was following us and made no attempt to overtake. Quite extraordinary!

The route through the Hills was scenic, twisty and not too steep. We certainly weren't the fastest car on the road but we were far from the slowest. However, as we were passing a small lake (I don't know where it was exactly) on a general rise, the car experienced fuel starvation. This sometimes happens on a long rise where you can't afford to vary the throttle for fear of the revs dropping down to first gear speed (the car has a non-synchro first gear). We really needed to stop, feather the throttle a little to get the fuel flowing smoothly again and then set off. I spotted an area of gravel just large enough to pull the car over and we instantly stalled. After a bit of cranking she fired up with a little bang. Whatever had been blocking the carb was gone and she ran beautifully for the rest of the day.

1750 cars set out from bayside Adelaide but not everyone stops in Birdwood. Some participants arrive, collect their certificates and then turn for home. We were so far back in the pack that there loads of cars passing us on their way back. It was still grindingly slow getting into Birdwood. At least a thousand cars were parked in the museum grounds. As an interstate club the SIVA members were supposed to parked together somewhere near the museum entrance, but we were now spread all over the place. One member was in the concourse. Another had obtained a VIP pass and the others were parked randomly. One sharp eyed marshal spotted our club logo and explained to us where we were meant to park, but in the crowd of cars we were redirected into the general entry. We saw the SIVA flag flying across the field so we tried to make our way to them, but it was hopeless. We decided to park wherever we could find a spot.

Cars in the field

More cars...

As we drove through the crowd we bumped into Peter, Stef and Yvonne and Peter warned us that our exhaust was "swinging in the wind." That wasn't good news! A quick inspection revealed that the new rubber mounting bracket holding the exhaust on had snapped. This was a read problem as the exhaust was now held on only by the mounting beneath the front seat. It would not have been a good idea to drive back to Adelaide without a fix. We removed the broken mount and took it to the RAA (Royal Automobile Association) guys who strapped it up temporarily with cable ties. It wasn't a pretty fix but it would get us home.

This mounting block was not original but exhaust shop couldn't find anything else that would fit. I believe the block came from a Landrover. Anyway, one of the metal plates tore away from the rubber mount.

With the added thickness of the cable ties the repaired mount was a bugger to reinsert. Thanks to Paul Blank who help me put it back on. Here Paul is using his feet to push the exhaust away from the mounting bracket so I can force the block back into position. Definitely a two person job.

All this fuss kept us from really appreciating our time at Bay to Birdwood and we did not get to enjoy the display at the National Motor Museum. We also missed catching up with the other SIVA members and people from the Historic German Register of Australia who'd come to the show to catch up with us. I felt the end of the event was rather chaotic with people leaving the display area.

The Shannon's Goggomobil

50 years of Volvo display

Mowag truck from Switzerland

Paul's Rolls Royce flying the SIVA flag

How did this guy get in here? An Austin 7 that is definitely outside the date range.

Lovely Mazda Cosmo

Steyr-Puch Haflinger. There were two in attendance.

Stef and Yvonne Brayley and their Alpine A110 in the concourse. Stef drove the car all the way back to Perth!

BMW 2002

Fashions in the Field. Stef and Yvonne were ripped off. Stef's suit is not fancy dress. He's owned it since the 1960s!




Bay to Birdwood was a great experience and we enjoyed it immensely, despite the less than perfect performance of the car on the day. Ironically the car drove magnificently the next day when we drove to the drop-off. However, the Classic event was a little disappointing for me as the event was dominated by the 'usual suspects' - 369 Holdens and 277 Fords. But that is Australia isn't it. The entry lists are here: http://baytobirdwood.com.au/btb-2016/the-2017-vehicles The efforts of the organizers are to be congratulated. Bay to Birdwood is a major logistical undertaking and the support they have obtained from the community is fantastic.

Daisy heads home back to Perth with Ryans Transport.

I've since fixed the exhaust mounting. Again, it's not an original fitting - the exhaust is a little out of original alignment. This silent block is a little smaller than the Landrover mount. I hope it lasts, but suspect I'll need to add another bracket to the back end of the mount to reduce lateral tension.

Back to the travels with a DKW part one http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/travels-with-dkw.html

And part two http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2017/11/more-travels-with-dkw.html