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Period images to relieve some of the stress


Walt G

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1 minute ago, alsancle said:

 

That is an attractive one but the RHD makes it a harder sell.

That too as RHD has appeal, though more so in such as England.  Advantege to particular car was low mileage and always being fairly well maintained car.  It comes off as a totally unrestored car, but Barker/Hooper I believe did the cosmetics and a heavy maintenance prior to their closing in late 1950's 

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11 minutes ago, John_Mereness said:

Wallis Bird

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This is the Wallace Bird estate in Oyster Bay , long island in 1961. I was at that sale as a young lad and the woody wagon in the rear was a 1940 Buick. Someone stole the shift knob off the Duesenberg Beverly sedan. Austin Clark bought the Bugatti type 35 race car and it resided for many years out in one of the barns out at his auto museum.

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Did everybody see Chris Summer's great article on the Bird sale on the CCCA magazine?   I contributed about 6 pictures taken by my dad and Ted Billings.  They went armed with cash and all they got was a telephone from the mansion (which I still have).

 

Btw,  the Rollston body on the Hispano was originally one of two built on Stutz DV32.

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The Bugatti missing a right rear tire is a Type 43, chassis 43292 engine 121. The engine sat in Vintage Auto here in town for 13 years, the car sat in a shop on Long Island. The late Peter Giddings rescues the project, it must have been a very low mileage car when it entered the Bird collection in the 1940's. 

 

Bob 

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11 hours ago, alsancle said:

 

 

Probably the most photographed Duesenberg of them all.   Available for 8500 bucks in 1959 to anyone that wanted to step up.

 

 

1962-09 Duesenberg J-557 Mormon Meteor (3).jpg

But in retrospect, in 1959 my father was supporting a family of 6 on less than $100 per week.  We were not poor, but we certainly were not rich either.  The $8500 purchase price would have been the equivalent of approximately a 2-year salary for an average, middle class worker, and over 4 times the cost of an average priced new car.  And that was when it was not much more than a fancy 25 year-old car.

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3 hours ago, George Cole said:

But in retrospect, in 1959 my father was supporting a family of 6 on less than $100 per week.  We were not poor, but we certainly were not rich either.  The $8500 purchase price would have been the equivalent of approximately a 2-year salary for an average, middle class worker, and over 4 times the cost of an average priced new car.  And that was when it was not much more than a fancy 25 year-old car.

 

Your context is spot on.   There were a number of the greatest cars all available around the same time for 8500 bucks.  That seemed to be the going rate for the top cars.   This included the Round Door Rolls (which was gold at this time) and the Lebaron DC Packard (currently in the Bahre collection. 

 

More context was my dad sold his 852 Auburn Speedster in 1959 at the reunion for 2500 bucks.  Probably a worlds record right then.  He didn't want to sell it but offer was too god to refuse.  The buyer bought him a plane flight home.

 

 

DadsSpeedster1958.jpg

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On 12/30/2020 at 6:52 PM, 1937hd45 said:

Right hand drive, what is the history on this one? Bob 

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OK, I have had a chance to look up in my collection/run of Motor Show souvenir programs ( more fun to do then watch a ball drop on TV in Times Square) The 23rd International Motor Exhibition took place in the Olympia exhibition hall on October 17-26, 1929 in London England. The annual show was sponsored by the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders Ltd.

The program is 3/4 " thick 6 x 91/2" in size with 488 Pages! weighs about a half a pound. The car you see here was on the exhibit stand ( No. 125) of Malcolm Campbell ( London) Ltd. who was located at Byron House , St. James Street, London in the South West section of that city. He had three Duesenberg's on display - this convertible sedan that they called an 'All-Weather' and it was painted in black and silver. they also had a limousine with Barker body painted in black and gray, as well as a display chassis . the surrounding exhibit stands on all four sides were Citroen, Lagonda, M.G., and O.M. cars. The stand was just inside to the right of the Addison Road entrance to the ground floor exhibit hall.

Hope this description isn't to detailed to put all of you to sleep.

There were a great many exhibits of American cars at all four Motor Shows that took place in Europe ( London, Berlin, Pairs and Brussels) and the advertisements that some of them took out in the programs and automobile magazines of Europe at the time are most interesting and give a great view of what it was like to see American cars in Europe. Many had European coachwork ( cheaper if it was an imported chassis to be shipped with no body as import tax was less - the same thing applied to cars coming into America at the time ( usually via the Port of NY)

OK I will stop - way to much information overload for one picture. This is turning to an article.

This would be a good topic to present in a seminar or talk : "Across the Pond - American Cars in Europe pre war" Geez , more projects.....................

Walt

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Here to start the New Year off are two Cadillacs: the touring car is a 1916 ( so noted in ink on the back of the photo - is it?) and a  1922 or 1925  town car ( the number was scratched out and corrected so ?) also notes the body is by Aimesbury Body. Comments please.  The original prints of the photos are really small 2 1/2 x 3 1/2

Cadillac1916touring.jpg

CADILLAC1925towncar.jpg

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1 minute ago, alsancle said:

 

Agreed,  except I would take the SJ version of it which I believe is no longer with us.

 

35 minutes ago, ericmac said:

In my opinion the greatest Duesenberg of all time. 


Would not be in my top ten, and possibly not the top twenty of Model J’s. I’m a phaeton type of collector, but there are lots of other more refined bodies that are not as heavy. 

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24 minutes ago, edinmass said:

 


Would not be in my top ten, and possibly not the top twenty of Model J’s. I’m a phaeton type of collector, but there are lots of other more refined bodies that are not as heavy. 

 

Fair enough.  I was thinking "production bodies".   There are lots of exceptional one off cars that probably trump it.

 

COACHBUILD.com • View topic - Gurney Nutting Duesenberg

Edited by alsancle (see edit history)
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I was thinking there are lots of better factory bodies.........or small batch bodies from the custom houses. While I prefer phaetons because as a kid that was the car to own............two door roadsters and convertible coupes/Victoria’s are certainly preferred by most today. I think the JN Rollston & the LaGrand convertible coupes are top of the line. Lots of others will argue for a disappearing top Murphy........just because of the early classic lines.

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Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
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