Two superb gouache and oil coachwork designs for classic brougham automobiles. c 1910-1920.

£5,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Kellner Fils was one of the leading French coachbuilders throughout the nineteenth century, and was one of the many concerns that successfully transferred their expertise into the design and construction of bodywork for luxury motor cars. Operating at the highest end of the automotive world from their offices on the Champs Elysees, they produced bodies for such noted marques as Rolls Royce, Hispano-Suiza, Duesenberg and Bugatti - indeed, one of the six famed Bugatti Royales was bodied by Kellner. These drawings from Kellner Fils depict two early twentieth-century automobiles with bespoke coach-built bodywork and passenger cabins. Given the bespoke nature of coachbuilding services, manufacturers typically employed draughtsmen and artists to produce visual renderings of their designs for clients. These drawings allowed clients to visualise and approve the bodywork and passenger cabins that the coachbuilder would then construct atop the chassis supplied by the manufacturer (Matthew C. Sonfield, Custom Automotive Coachbuilding in the United States, 1900-1940, 1996). One drawing has a pencil notation on the reverse: “Rolls Royce”, and depicts a 40/50HP Silver Ghost in ‘brougham’ configuration (with exposed chauffeur compartment and enclosed passenger cabin). The Silver Ghost was Rolls Royce’s flagship model from 1906 to 1926 and is identifiable among contemporary Rolls Royces by the design of the rear suspension. The other drawing lacks any such notation, but probably depicts an e

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