Indonesian Spykers – there was a whole pack of them!

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We received several interesting comments after we wrote about the Spyker 18hp that was found in Indonesia back in the 1970s and subsequently re-bodied as a Speedster. You can read the full story here.

Henk Oost, the Dutch Pioneer Automobile Club’s archivist, had been in correspondence with finder Mellaart at the time and remembered that Mellaart had also found a Lorraine-Dietrich from around 1910 in Surabaya, a circa 1911 Lancia in Jakarta, a circa 1914 Haynes 12-cylinder and a 1914 Pennock-bodied FN Landaulette. He’d also confirmed that the Spyker was indeed an 18hp with chassis number 18117.

Just as interesting, we found that it wasn’t the only Spyker in the former Dutch colony. Another was owned by a Mr. L. Croin of Yogyakarta, and a wonderful photograph of that car, taken in 1909, was found in the Leiden University archives.

That image wasn’t on its own either, or so you informed us. Further research revealed that more Spyker pictures have emerged from the same library. And what pictures they were! Although there wasn't much information with them, we’d like to share what is available nevertheless.

On the first of them we see six cars, all of them believed to be Spykers and supposedly photographed on Java around 1910. The second has a similar description but is even better in quality and shows four cars — all of them Spykers too? — with white-suited men under a carport. The third and last of them was taken by one Neville Keasberry of Malang and has some more info to offer. The translated caption reads: “Cars in front of the Pest Control Bureau in Surabaya, where controller Charles Olke van der Plas (possibly standing under the letter ‘P’) worked from 1916 to 1918 with, on the right in front, probably a Spyker.” We wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the other cars seen on it are also Spykers.

The fact is that there were quite a few Spykers in that part of the world at the time. So is the Mellaart car really the only one of them remaining?

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures Leiden University Libraries.

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