A collection of cars parked up before World War II and left largely untouched for more than eight decades is about to return to public view. Bonhams will offer the seven vehicles, known as the Somerset Hoard, at its Golden Age of Motoring Sale in London on October 30, 2026.

The cars were acquired during the 1930s and remained in the ownership of a single British family as the world around them changed. While motoring technology advanced through successive generations, these early machines stayed put, preserving rare examples of how cars looked and were built in the first decades of motoring.

The group spans several early marques, including Rover, Humber, Darracq, Swift, Progress, Belsize and Baker Electric, a spread that covers both petrol pioneers and early electric motoring. Their reappearance has drawn attention precisely because such long-dormant, single-family groups are unusual: most cars of this age were scrapped, rebuilt or dispersed long ago.

The sale is a reminder of how much early motoring history can survive unnoticed in private hands: these were not museum pieces on display, but family-owned cars that simply stayed where they were while the industry moved on. Bonhams' sale places the hoard in front of collectors at a moment when originality and untouched history carry particular weight in the classic car market. Whether the seven cars sell as a story of survival as much as for their individual condition will become clear when the hammer falls in London.

For collectors, the appeal lies in that unbroken family ownership: seven cars that entered one household in the 1930s and are only now reaching the open market together, rather than arriving piecemeal through dealers or previous auctions.