Coys Auction - Fine Motor Cars
Blenheim Palace,
Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1PX

Saturday 5th July 2008 at 14.30

The Waltham company was formed in 1893 by C.H. Metz to make bicycles under the name Orient. Its best known product, the Orient Buckboard, was designed by Leonard B. Gaylord and patented in March 1903. Based around a flat wooden board that served as both chassis and suspension, the model was simplicity itself. Powered by a single-cylinder 4hp air-cooled engine, it was reported to be capable of over 30mph, riding on wire wheels, the Buckboard weighed approximately 400lbs. For years America''s cheapest car, it could be purchased for as little as $337. When production ceased in 1908, the Waltham Museum estimates only 2,500 Buckboards were built, fewer than sixty of which are thought to have survived worldwide.

Imported from America in 1989 and first registered in Great Britain on the 1st October the same year, this examp