1912 | Daimler 15 HP

To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION WITHOUT RESERVE at RM Sothebys' Cliveden House event, 8 July 2025.
Offered Without Reserve | £25,000 - £35,000 GBP

• Formerly owned by John Cuthill Sword and the Sharpe family
• Handsome and dignified formal custom coachwork on a desirable chassis
• Equipped with a 15 horsepower sleeve-valve engine
• The very definition of patina, still as it was kept by pioneering collectors

Please note the historic V5C present in the history file is titled as 1921.


This 15 HP, four-cylinder sleeve-valve Daimler was originally delivered in Hampshire and there registered as “AA 4284”. Its earliest known owner was the Scottish rail magnate John Cuthill Sword, a very early and prolific collector of motorised transport who built a vast stable at his farm in East Balgray. While in The Sword Collection, the car was part of the inventories conducted by George Oliver, one of which recorded the coachwork as being by Rock, Thorpe & Chatfield of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, a respected old-line carriagemaker.

Sword’s vast collection was dispersed at a series of auctions, notable as among the first major “antique automobile” sales, attracting soon-to-be-prominent collectors from both sides of the Atlantic. The Daimler was transacted in 1962, with the catalogue noting it to be “finished in dull wine and black. It is in most excellent condition, and is a superb example of the Coventry product”. It appears to have been acquired at that sale by Arthur O Freakes of Putney Heath, London, who registered it in Hampshire in June 1963—the only owner and date recorded on the vintage “buff” logbook that accompanies the car. It is next known to have passed in 1983 to the Sharpe family, and spent the following two decades on exhibit in their museum at Rayleigh. In 2005 it was deaccessioned and acquired by the late Jim Boland, with whom it has remained since.

The car proudly wears its history, still carrying the finishes applied in the Sword ownership—something clearly proven by the “JCS” monograms on the rear doors, a wonderfully evocative piece of UK motoring past still in place after some 70 years. Inside, the leather upholstery in both the front and rear compartments remains intact. The original engine number plate and stamping are both present, as are period-correct Smith & Son Goldenlyte headlamps, Lucas King of the Road 724 sidelamps, a J&R Oldfield brass taillamp, Bosch magneto, and Stewart speedometer/odometer. Even the Daimler script pedal pads remain on this impressive machine. Please note, following a period of static display, it is recommended that the car is inspected by a mechanic prior to being driven.

Exhibiting tremendous patina but still very much intact, the Daimler would be tempting to recommission and enjoy exactly as it sits, as a regal piece of Kent coachbuilding, Coventry engineering prowess, and connoisseurship that extends back to the very earliest days of the motoring hobby.

Please note this lot has entered the UK on a temporary import bond, which must be cancelled either by exporting the lot outside of the UK on an approved Bill of Lading with supporting customs documentation or by paying the applicable VAT and import duties to have the lot remain in the UK.


To view this car and others currently consigned to this auction, please visit the RM website at rmsothebys.com/auctions/ch25/.