Book - Spyker - 1898-1926

Spijker 1898-1926.-Vincent van der Venne.

Publication Bataafse Leeuw 1998. 360 pages with numerous historical illustrations. Hardcover with dust jacket. Copy as new.
History of the then largest car factory in the Netherlands. In 1880 the Spijker brothers established a carriage factory in Hilversum. By moving the company to Amsterdam after only six years they tapped a larger market. With the advent of the automobile the Spijker brothers realized that the days of horse and carriage were numbered and switched to car production. Not all inventions launched by the Amsterdam factory were successful, but with the development of four-wheel drive in 1903 and the first upright six-cylinder in the same year the Spyker gained international fame. Later followed the ‘dust shield chassis’. The factory expanded strongly between 1903 and 1907, but they did not manage to optimally utilize the increased production capacity. Under the leadership of new management the factory, then called Industrial Company ‘Trompenburg’, was revived in 1908 after a bankruptcy. During World War I they even briefly devoted themselves to designing and manufacturing airplanes.

After 1918 they produced almost exclusively more expensive cars (the C1 and the C4), but the economic depression of the years 1921 and 1922 led to a renewed bankruptcy. After a difficult restart, in 1926 the public sale took place of the typically Dutch car factory.