Thanks for that Al!
I also saw the auction just before I went on holiday to Scotland for a few days so couldn't have been present at the end of it.
Though this is one of the nicest complete post-war 375s I've seen I decided not to bid on or even watch the auction, despite this being one of my favourite cleaners. Why? Well I already have quite a few examples of these machines, including both these styles of black bags, tool sets, an example of the cleaner box, the service leaflet and instructions. Some of these aren't quite as nice as what was on offer here..but after just winning a job lot from a Vacuumland member (Jonathan Hastings) and spending money like no-ones business on a number of other vacs,mowers, new car tyres etc I had to draw the line. By the way, Jonathan's machines look lovely and all run spot-on!
It looks as though this 375 has gone to a collector, judging from the price made?..but who knows, perhaps someone valued it enough to buy it for regular use!
At least thanks to you I now know the final price it went for.
Incidentally I initially thought that all post-war 375s had the large castor wheels at the front. Presumably, the adjuster was done-away with because the wider wheels don't sink into the pile as much. Whilst I loved the earlier type with the adjuster, which you could set just right whilst in motion to Hoover up the pile I once had one back I sold to a lady because it was making tram lines on her carpets! However I've read that post-war machines had an F preceding the serial number..and these appear on some earlier-style models with the adjuster too. In fact, the late-style casing was still available as a spare part into the 1960's, according to Hoover's service guides!
I'm inclined to agree with Al that it's unlikely many 375s were scrapped during the war, they were such an expensive purchase back then and there was a shortage of machines from what I've gathered. In some cases parts weren't supplied or repaired unless the old ones were exchanged. Also I've seen a lot of 375s over the past twenty odd years I've been collecting Hoovers..and I'd say that most have been of the early type with adjuster. The others are not rare; what are not so common are complete machines in nice condition, eg. this auction.
Stephen
