1893 Featherstone Brochure From eBay

[Ride the High Country]

I wonder if any member here was the purchaser of the Featherstone brochure from the 1893 World’s Fair and Columbian Exposition, that was recently sold on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Featherstone-Bicycle-Exhibit-Fold-Ad-from-the-1893-World-039-s-Columbian-Exposition-/202694113141?hash=item2f3182b775%3Ag%3A3ZYAAOSwfF5c8Dir&nma=true&si=DucG4QrYT5COCyn6qrQIuQ9iqpU%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I own a Featherstone Prince bicycle, recently restored by Craig Allen, that was a display model from the Fair. I would gladly pay a substantially higher price for the brochure, so as to be able to display it with the bicycle. Even high resolution scans would be helpful.

Any help would be most appreciated.

[Brad Drexler]

I recently found the '93 Road king and Queen catalog

[Ride the High Country]

That’s quite a remarkable find!

It’s a shame that the treasure trove of commentary from the old Wheelmen forum was neither left up as an archive, nor merged onto the new forum. It would have been fascinating to compare the Road Queen and Road King on the lengthy Featherstone discussions with the illustrations and descriptions in that catalogue.

Does this catalogue feature other Featherstone models, or is it devoted solely to the Road King and Road Queen? (Readers should note that in 1893, Featherstone also issued a catalogue covering all models other than the King and Queen.) The 1894 and 1895 annual catalogues feature all models.

[Brad Drexler]

The catalog is exclusive to the King and Queen. Contrary to the sellers claim, wood rims was not an option on the Queen.

[Ride the High Country]

I can’t imagine why, in the original discussion, there was any credence at all given to the idea that the wooden rims on the early Road Queen in question were original to that bicycle.

Now that the discussion has vanished from the internet, and the photos with it, it can not be determined how closely that Road Queen adhered to the cuts in your 1893 catalogue. I can say that my Prince is an absolutely perfect match for the cut in the 1893 catalogue of mid-range bicycles. It would also have been interesting to compare your catalogue illustrations to the photos of Paul Rubenson’s Road King.

Alas, Google have cached only the second page of the discussion:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:z6rjOHvVUF0J:www.thewheelmen.org/forum/topic.asp%3FTOPIC_ID%3D8228%26whichpage%3D2+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

And the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine has nothing at all from it.

That looks like a beautiful catalogue, by the way.

The seller of the Columbian Exposition brochure contacted the buyer on my behalf, though unfortunately, the latter declined to part with it. I have made a standing offer. And the seller, an expert on the Fair, very kindly supplied me with a superb high-resolution scan of the engraving of the Featherstone exhibit.

[Paul Rubenson]

I did archive those earlier threads, and will try to find them and re-up them.  I have the 1893 Road King.
Paul

[Bjd.]

I may have a couple of photos of that queen that belonged to that character in Florida. I think it may have ended up in a museum in califunyland. It was a 26", not a full sized bike.

[Ride the High Country]

Paul, it would be wonderful if you could somehow make the Featherstone threads, from the old Wheelmen forum, available again.

The Road Queen from the long discussion is indeed at a museum:

https://www.wheelsofthepast.org/Current-Display-by-Year.html

In the first photo on that site, it can be seen that tyres have been installed on the wooden wheels, and inflated. The front wheel, at least, still looks small. The question remains: would a 28-inch wheel and tyre fit? On my 26-inch Prince, the gap between the spoon brake and the tyre is much smaller.

I would be very interested to see a photo of the head decal on that Road Queen. Any photos of that bicycle would be welcome.

I finally have a deal in the works to acquire the Featherstone brochure from the Columbian Exposition.

[Brad Drexler]

Here's the Queen

[Brad Drexler]

Hmm, the text was clear on my camera. I'll try that again. At least photos are easier to post on this forum. Thanks for that.

[Ride the High Country]

That marvellous catalogue would have brought a lot of clarity to the original discussion! Here we can see that the 1893 Road Queen did in fact have steel wheels and 26-inch tyres. The fact that the wheels and tyres fit the frame far better in the catalogue cut (which was made from a photograph and was a very precise depiction of the actual bicycle) seems to indicate that the steel wheels with Dunlop tyres had a larger outer diameter than the later wood wheels and single-tube tyres.

The 1893 Featherstone mudguards were steel. The wooden mudguards currently on the Road Queen in the museum must have been added somewhat later. The rear mudguard was drilled for string lacing, whereas the bicycle was originally fitted with screen guards for the skirts, in the same style as the chain guard.

The handlebar remains somewhat mysterious. It looks similar to the original, but inverted.

Thanks for adding the photos, Brad.