What colour do you think this mystery car would have been?

We hope you all had a good weekend. It is time for another Monday Mystery. This photograph was sent in by Piet Geirnaert. He thinks the pre-war car in the photograph is either an Automobilwerk Richard & Hering, a Mercedes or an AGA. What do you think, is it any of these three? Or are you a 100% (or 99%) sure this pre-war car is definitely another make?

Then we also have another fun question for you this week. As you can see this is a sepia-like photograph in which there are no colours visible. But what colour do you think this car would have been (at the moment this photograph was taken).

Please comment below if you can help solve this mystery or answer our question about the colour of this pre-war car.

This article was originally published on October 8, 2018

Published:

Sunday August 10th, 2025

AGA Museum

11 August 2025, 03:07

This is 100% an AGA.

Mike Costigan

08 October 2018, 09:55

Colour is almost impossible to identify: any photograph taken before Kodak's Panchromatic film introduced around 1930 will render almost any colour outside the blue spectrum as a dark shade. We can say definitely that this car is not blue, and I would suggest it is not black, as the body appears to be a slightly paler shade than the wings, but otherwise it could be red, green, even bright yellow! There is a well-known photograph of a 1916 Saxon known as the Golden Flyer which is documented as being yellow with dark blue lettering - the photograph shows a dark coloured car with light coloured lettering!

herman van oldeneel

08 October 2018, 08:46

Dux Limousine Type N
from the Dux Automobilwerke AG.

Robbie Marenzi

08 October 2018, 01:57

Judging by the shape of the radiator emblem I'd say without a doubt, it's a Rex-Simplex made by Automobilwerk Richard & Hering A.G. We can only guess what colour it was, but black is the most likely.

Michael Schlenger

08 October 2018, 01:16

In my opinion, the car in the photo is neither a Mercedes nor an AGA (nor is it a Dürkopp - another possibility, if one looks at the badge on the typically German v-shaped radiator).

One detail is highly distinctive: the single lateral louvre in the engine hood. Even if the rest of the body is different you'll find the crucial details on the car in the attached picture from my collection of German prewar-car photos. On the original print "Rex-Simplex" is legible on the radiator badge. This marque refers to the Hering & Richard company located in Ronneburg (East Germany) which Piet Geirnaert mentioned in his post.

For a long time, Rex-Simplex or the manufacturer Hering Richard, respectively, was believed to have not continued to build cars after WW1, yet an increasing number of postwar photos such as the one from Piet Geirnart (and the one from my collection) show that they actually did!

As for the question regarding the original colour of the car in Piet Geirnarts photo, I'd suggest a pretty dark one...

What colour do you think this mystery car would have been?

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