Posted 14 years ago
ptechwv
(1 item)
Hartford bicycle pattern no. 8. This is a really cool bike it has wood grips,carbide lamp an awesome seat i have tried to find out as much as i can, about this hartford cycle co. but there dosent seem to be a whole lot out there, i did find some old articles on archive.org about the bike, i know it was produced in 1897 and its called a pneumatic safety bike. It has wood rims,carbide light woof fender and chain cover. any info would be great!
I can't say a lot about the bike maker, but in case it isn't obvious, it is a ladies bike, given the channeled seat and the woven spoke and chain guard(to prevent a ladies skirt from getting tangled in the spokes/chain. It looks in wonderful condition...
Hartford bicycles were manufactured in Hartford, Connecticut by the Pope Company / Westfield Manufacturing Co. Their primary brand was Columbia bicycles. Most Hartford bicycles are essentially rebadged Columbias. I have a 1930 Hartford. Your bike most likely dates late 1890s based on the frame/wheel style. The last patent date on your seat is 1897 so I would say the bike is most likely 1897-1899 however this frame style was available into the early 1920s. The story goes Pope would only allow one Columbia dealer per town/city so other dealers got rebadged slightly different rebadged Columbia bikes. They also manufactured numerous other brands. Mr. Columbia at http://www.vintagecolumbiabikes.com/index.html has vast amounts of info on Westfield Mfg & Columbia bicycles. I have been researching Hartford bikes and find very very few on the internet so I believe those badged Hartfords are now fairly rare. Beautiful bike, great seat & lamp.