Golden Age of the Luxury Car (1980, Paperback)

This book is a must for any serious student of the age of Classic Coachbuilt Automobiles. Subtitled, "An Anthology of Articles & Photographs from 'Autobody', 1927-1931", it was culled from the short-lived "Autobody", a magazine published monthly in New York City from 1922 to 1931.

"Autobody" chronicled the Automotive Salons in New York, Chicago, Paris, London, Brussels, Milan and more. Divided into seven sections, the articles, insights and photos are contemporary to the era, rather than recent writings that may have lost their historical context. It includes listings of all the major coachbuilders on both sides of the Atlantic, stories on the Concours D'Elegance (far removed from today's Concours) that showcased some of the finest custom body-building of the day and much more than can be revealed in this small space.

Remember that this was the time, brief but glorious, in automotive history when the "Carriage Trade" (royalty, the rich and famous) would buy a chassis from one of the upper-echelon car companies and have a truly custom body built to their specifications and tastes. These well-healed folks were paying tens of thousands of dollars for a car at a time when the world was sinking into the Depression, and the Ford Model A cost $500-$600.

Auto stylists annually would sail back and forth on ocean liners to get ideas for their own upcoming designs, new trends in color, upholsteries, etc. The Salons and Concours they visited featured design elements that would eventually wind up on our own, average, workaday showroom models. Some of the articles are even written by now-famous stylists whose influences lasted for decades.

Don't let its relatively small size (152 pages) fool you; inside are plenty of stunning creations for Duesenbergs, Packards, Pierce-Arrows, Marmons, Cadillacs, Lincolns, Minervas, Rolls Royces, and on and on. Exterior and interior photos of these foreign and domestic Classics provide a brief glimpse of the "way the other half lived".

Published in 1980 by Dover Publications, edited from the Author George Hildebrand's complete collection of "Autobody", I find it indispensible for my own varied areas of research and interest. Mr. Hildebrand's distinguished career began with LeBaron and then Rollston in New York City, later by stints with GM and others following the collapse of the coachbuilt car market. It's truly a labor of love, compiled by someone who was there at the time, chronicling a bygone era never to be repeated.

I happened upon a copy in our city's library, devoured it completely, and was thrilled to find my own (long out of print) copy on ebay, at a very reasonable price. No personal automotive history reference library is complete without it.