Photo: East Bristol Auctions
This year, the Princess of Wales, or Princess Diana as she’s best known as, would have turned 60. This probably explains the surge of old cars and bicycles being offered at auction again.
Royalists and memorabilia collectors who missed out on the previous two opportunities (a 1981 Ford Escort Ghia and the 1970 Raleigh Traveler bicycle she used to ride in London) should know another chance is coming up. It’s Diana’s red Tracker bike that she would ride around on her family’s estate when she was just a kid.
Toy Specialist Lucy McCourt from East Bristol Auctions describes the Tracker as more than just a toy and definitely more than a kid’s bike. This is a piece of Diana’s personal history, recalling to the time when she was still safe at the family’s Althorp House, unaware of the great and tragic things the future had in store for her. It’s a romaticized take alright, but it is not wrong.
“One can almost imagine the young Diana riding around her childhood country estate on this. And there is, naturally, a tinge of sadness to it also,” McCourt says.
The listing notes that the bike, No. 153079 in “Chopper” style, made throughout the 1970s by Trusty Manufacturing Co., is all-original, down to the tires. It features sprung seat suspension, chrome mug guard front and rear, a vinyl chopper-style saddle, central gear level and Y-frame handlebars with cable brakes.
When the future Princess of Wales outgrew the bike, the family sold it to the housekeeper, Maudie Pendrey, for £20 (approximately $28 at the current exchange rate). Pendrey’s son kept it until 2007, when he sold it at auction, and then it went on display at the House on the Hill Toy Museum.
Accompanied by a handwritten card from Diana to Mrs. Pendrey, original documentation and certification, and even newspaper clippings, the Tracker bike is expected to fetch between £20,000 and £30,000 ($27,700 and $41,550) on July 24. That’s a lot of money for just a bike, but not if you think that the aforementioned Raleigh fetched £44,000 ($61,000) earlier this year.
Toy Specialist Lucy McCourt from East Bristol Auctions describes the Tracker as more than just a toy and definitely more than a kid’s bike. This is a piece of Diana’s personal history, recalling to the time when she was still safe at the family’s Althorp House, unaware of the great and tragic things the future had in store for her. It’s a romaticized take alright, but it is not wrong.
“One can almost imagine the young Diana riding around her childhood country estate on this. And there is, naturally, a tinge of sadness to it also,” McCourt says.
The listing notes that the bike, No. 153079 in “Chopper” style, made throughout the 1970s by Trusty Manufacturing Co., is all-original, down to the tires. It features sprung seat suspension, chrome mug guard front and rear, a vinyl chopper-style saddle, central gear level and Y-frame handlebars with cable brakes.
When the future Princess of Wales outgrew the bike, the family sold it to the housekeeper, Maudie Pendrey, for £20 (approximately $28 at the current exchange rate). Pendrey’s son kept it until 2007, when he sold it at auction, and then it went on display at the House on the Hill Toy Museum.
Accompanied by a handwritten card from Diana to Mrs. Pendrey, original documentation and certification, and even newspaper clippings, the Tracker bike is expected to fetch between £20,000 and £30,000 ($27,700 and $41,550) on July 24. That’s a lot of money for just a bike, but not if you think that the aforementioned Raleigh fetched £44,000 ($61,000) earlier this year.
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