Anthony Crook Brass Plate

[GeorgeG]

My 408 Mark 2 originally had a brass plate on each of the door sills "Supplied by Anthony Crook - Leading Distributors - Hersham Surrey". I've attached a photo which I hope gives you an idea of what it looks like. Many of the cars I've seen at the Concours here in the UK have similar plates.

Its dimensions are:

Length: 28.4 cm

Width: 3 cm

Plate thickness: 1.5 mm - 1.6 mm.

You know where I'm going here - I've only got the driver's side plate (O/S) and never had the passenger side plate, although there is a faint outline of the plate on the passenger side sill where it was once screwed/rivetted - before my time.

I've identified a supplier in the UK who can produce a replica (Vintage Brass Plates - Providers of Plates and Tags) but I thought I might shout out here to see if anyone else needs/wants one so I could put an order in for a job lot. I'm told that the more units on the production run, the cheaper the unit price, which makes sense. So, if anyone wants one, please PM me with contact details and I'll start a list. I won't put an order in till I have a quote per unit and you've agreed the price. I guess that each plate will be in the region of 50 GBP if we get a reasonable number of plates on order, or maybe less.

The plates are very light so postage should not break the bank.

Let me know
George

[clheddier]

Dear George

I am also owning a 408 MK2 (408-7209). My 408 has a Tony Crook label at the driver side sill. This one is different to yours. Please see the attached photo.

Greetings from Germany

Clemens

[Xseries]

I have another size - and given my car was supplied from Kensington this century, not Hersham in the 20th, I am happy to sell it!

Size is 2.5" by 1.25"

Brian

[GeorgeG]

Hi, Clemens. Greetings to you too, from Hertfordshire, England.

I've checked and our cars are 2 days apart, in date of first registration. Despite yours being 2 chassis numbers after mine (and 3 engine numbers later), yours was registered just before mine.

So it's interesting that you should have a different brass plate from mine. I thought it might be due to your care being for export (hence the reference to AC being the "Sole UK Distributors" on your plate), but as far as I can see your car was a UK car (at least in the 1980s), so that theory looks unlikely to be correct.

I suspect that the answer is that your car was sold from the London showroom in Kensington and mine was sold from TC's Hersham site - and they had different plates for different sales points. Typical Bristol idiosyncracy!!

George

[GeorgeG]

Hi, Xseries.

Just seen your post - yet another design. Who knew? I suspect that there may not be many people with my version, so probably even fewer with a missing one of the pair and needing a replacement.

I probably wouldn't have bothered with trying to get a second plate if there wasn't a faint outline of the missing one on the passenger side sill. Once you've seen it, you can't unsee it!

George

[Zorglub]

I’m keen to get two plates - as I have none... the wider one seems nicer I guess since many have been several versions

[Kevin H]

At what point in time did Anthony Crook motors cease to exist as a Bristol dealership?

[GeorgeG]

I think it was in about 1973 - when he became sole owner of BCL, sold up Hersham and concentrated on Kensington and Filton, plus of course the service facility at Chiswick.