Automotive design for Alexis Kellner AG Berlin

£1,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books · No longer available

Finished in dark brown with contrasting light brown coachlines and matching solid disc wheels, presented against a silhouetted skyline of a town with a twin-spired church, this grand 4-door landauline was one of the more luxurious variant designs around the underpinnings of the company's straight-8 engine and drive train. It evolved from the Single Eight, so-called as it replaced the earlier V-12 known as the Double Six. Founded in 1899 by brothers James and William Packard, the eponymous company was not only one of the pioneers of North American motor manufacturing, but soon gained a global reputation for luxury and smoothness. The marque had been selling more models abroad than its competitors in the 1920s, culminating with selling twice as many as its closest rival by 1930. It is little wonder its the Packard received the attention of such creative luxury coachbuilders as Kellner. Founded by Alexis Kellner (1880-1953) in 1910, in Berlin, the eponymous Alexis Kellner AG coachbuilding company's stylish automobile bodywork designs were immediately successful. This was demonstrated by the number of orders he received at the International Motor Show, in Berlin, in 1911. Kellner was noted for his inventiveness of small details, such as a concealed handle behind the driver's seat for quickly and easily raising and lowering the car's roof, concealed bonnet hinges, for aesthetic as well as aerodynamic reasons, and a suitcase mounted on the running board. The company's success reach

• Binding: Hardcover

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