The conductor's hobby

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Beaulieu seems ages ago, but we didn't want to leave out the charming history connected with one of the steals in the Bonhams sale. Martin van der Zeeuw reports on this 1937 Ford V8 fire engine that, after its working life at the New Hampshire (US) fire department, was owned by a world-famous… orchestra conductor.

In 1930 Arthur Fiedler was appointed conductor of the Boston Pops, an orchestra derived from the Boston Symphony Orchestra that played light classical and popular music. Like most of us, Fiedler had a hobby: he was a ‘spark’, or a fire buff. Not only did he have a huge collection of fire helmets and equipment, he was also a fire-engine chaser. He was even made ‘Honorary Captain’ of the Boston Fire Department, so he was given a call any time there was a more-than-average fire in the city.

The Ford V8 was the icing on the cake in Fiedler’s collection. He had it restored in the seventies and it is said that he even drove it to a fire every now and then. After Fiedler passed away in 1979 at the age of 84, the fire engine was exhibited in the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts until it was sold in 2008.

At Beaulieu the ‘Fiedler No. 1’ was sold for 8,050 pounds (9,505 euros).

(Photos courtesy Bonhams)
 

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