A Bucciali for Bonhams

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And just when you thought you’d seen all there was to see being offered in auction, Bonhams is now bringing over a Bucciali to the Quail Lodge for its sale on 13 August 2021.

In our humble eyes that makes even the blown or unblown 4½-litre Bentleys, the supercharged Mercedes S-Type, the Riley MPH and the special-bodied Cadillac V16 seem kind of mundane. We’re even forgetting the Figoni & Falaschi-bodied Talbot-Lago here. Come on, it’s a Bucciali!

1930 Bucciali

What’s so special about it? Well, just about everything. Read the full auction blurb here if you like. We can add that this particular car is a Saoutchik bodied TAV 30 model known as ‘La Marie’ and comes with the signature front-wheel-drive system and inline eight-cylinder engine (and look at that engine bay!). The car has been on display by the Bucciali brothers in Paris, New York and Chicago in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In fact, it started life as TAV2 (for Traction Avant - front-wheel-drive - model number 2), later becoming TAV3 and being upgraded to a later development model every few months up until TAV8. It became TAV30 eventually, with the number now referring to 1930.

But before that, the car first undertook an American adventure. The car was brought over to the US on behalf of the Peerless Motor Company of Cleveland, Ohio for testing. A licensing agreement was set up between Bucciali and Peerless for the manufacture of a front-wheel driven Peerless car, while Bucciali was to become Peerless concessionary for France in return. But both never happened. By 1930 the car was back in France, but hardly a year later Peerless ceased trading. Paul-Albert Bucciali stored this car until 1940, moved it to another place in France in 1954 and to yet another until 1960 when it was sold. Eventually, it ended up in the US again, came back to Germany, by which time several parts had gone missing and the body had been used for another car.

A Saoutchik body was eventually sourced in the 1980s. This one had originally graced a Mercedes 680S chassis that had now been used to make a short wheel based SSK replica. Once restored, the Bucciali went up Stateside once more in 1985 when it was sold to the Blackhawk Museum. By that time Paul-Albert Bucciali had died, frustrated and embittered over a patent infringement claim for the front-wheel-drive system, which he’d lost. Not quite the kind of story to tell in a nutshell as this car has such an intriguing past. We’re not even surprised by the auctioneer's last line: ‘Special formalities are required to bid on this lot. Contact Client Services’. Would you pass Bonhams’ committee?

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures courtesy of Bonhams.

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