De Dion-Bouton on sale at auction

A Victorian car which cost £150 new more than 100 years ago could fetch up to £60,000 at auction after it was found in Shropshire.

The 1900 De Dion-Bouton four and a half/six hp vis-a-vis - the Mini of its time - was found in Shrewsbury about 40 years ago.

Auctioneers Bonhams said the car was "discovered in Shrewsbury in the mid-1960s by the current vendor's brother-in-law and for the next few years was jointly owned by the two men, until sole ownership passed to the vendor in 1969".

The car cost £150 new which in 1900, during the final days of Queen Victoria's reign, was roughly three years' wages for some skilled workers.

Now more than a century later the car is expected to sell for between £50,000 and £60,000 at Bonhams in London on Friday.

A spokesman for Bonhams said: "The names of De Dion and Bouton are inextricably linked with the pioneer years of the motor car. Early De Dions were rear engined and of the vis-a-vis type, where the passengers sat facing the driver."

In 1900, when the Shrewsbury car was built, De Dion-Bouton was the world's largest car maker and produced 400 cars and 3,200 engines that year. But only about 20 De Dion-Boutons have survived.

Experts say it was comparatively cheap to run a De Dion-Bouton in the early 1900s.