A superb and rare photo of factory rider Prentice, photographed with his equally magnificent New Imperial 350cc racer during the Junior TT in 1921 on the Isle of Man.

New Imperial was a British motorcycle manufacturer founded by Norman Downes in Birmingham, between 1887 and 1901, and became New Imperial Motors Ltd in 1912, when serious production commenced. New Imperial made innovative motorcycles that employed unit construction and sprung heel frames long before they became commonplace, and were moderately sucessful in competition. The Twenties were a financially successful decade, enabling the innovations of the Thirties that fought decline. New Imperial suffered financially from the sales destroying Great Depression of the  Thirties, and then the founder died in 1938. New Imperial was sold and sold again, and then ended production in late 1939, its former facilities subsequently serving the needs of a nation at war. The history of New Imperial, founded by Norman Downes, goes back to the early day sof the bicycle industry in Birmingham. From 1887 New Imperial made bicycle fittings and later, complete bicycles, possible after he bought the ailing bicycle business of Hearl and Tonks (founded 1892). It is also said that he created New Imperial in 1901, but no official record of the earliest company formation has been found. Official records do show the formation of a limited company in purpose built facility on Spring Road, at Hall Green. In 1932, New Imperical used unit construction engines, where the engine crankcase and gearbox are incorparated in the same casting. They made a Unit Minor 150 and Unit Super 250. They continued to use unit contruction, and some models used Bentley and Draper Sprung frames, in an era still dominated by rigid frames. By 1938 all of New Imperial engines employed unit construction. In 1934 Ginger Woods, riding a New Imperial 500 cc V-twin for one hour, achieved a 102.2 mph (164.4 km/h) average at Brooklands. Bob Foster won the 1936 Lightweight TT handsomely on a unit-construction model which was the last time that Great Britain ever won a Lightweight TT. Despite the advanced engineering, and the spectacular TT win by Foster, sales did not improve. In 1938 Norman Downes died. New Imperial went into liquidation, and a received was appointed by Lloyds Bank on 7 November, 1938. The receiver advertiesed the sale of New Imperial on 18 November. Jack Sangster, of Ariel and Triumph, announced on 30 December that he had purchased New Imperial and that production would continue, and on 27 January 1939, production resumed. Within a week there were rumours that the company was already being sold to Solomon Joseph, owner of Clifford Covering and Motor Components. The sale was confirmed on 10 February, and production was continued. Following the start of World War II, on 22 September, 1939 all spare parts were sold to the Colliers, of AMC, who then appointed New Imperial spares dealders. Board of Trade records show New Imperial LTD officially changed their name to Clifford Aero & Auto Ltd., Aeronautical Engineers, on 6 October, 1939, and they then produced aernautical components for the war effort. The name, New Imperial, was reportedly sold to BSA at a later date by Sangster, perhaps when he joined the board of BSA in 1951. The most likely explanation for this is that Sangster bought the name back from Clifford Aero and Auto when they changed over to wartime production, or that Sangster had retained the name and allowed Solomon Joseph to trade under it until war broke out and circumstances changed, but these details are not verifiable. Despite plans to revive the name, it was all over for New Imperial, making an end to the history of one of English finest motorcycle manufacturers.

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This is your rare chance to own this non period photo that reflects a very interesting and historic piece of motorcycle history. Therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 11" (ca. 20 x 28 cm).