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A fine 1920s representative

Auctions by Osenat in Fontainebleau are always interesting because they always come up with some interesting or rare French automobiles. For their next auction on December 13th they found an E.H.P., short for Etablissements Henri Précloux, Henri being its founder. He started in 1921 with an attractive cyclecar. The following year E.H.P. was taken over by C.G.A. (Carrosserie Générale Automobile), the company who made the bodies for E.H.P. Henri Précloux supplied the chassis, but the cars were still being sold as E.H.P.’s. The one we have here is a 1924 D4 model with a 4-cylinder 1200cc CIME engine and a torpedo body made by C.G.A. in Courbevoie. The D4 was recovered from a small factory in Paris in the early sixties and has since been fully restored to its original condition. Due to financial problems at C.G.A. the last E.H.P. was made in 1929. After that Henri Précloux made no more cars and in the 1960s he was working as a welder in a Paris Suburb. (photos courtesy Osenat)