Whatever happened to Sweden's pioneering De Dion?

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The first driving licence issued in Sweden in 1902 is said to have been presented to the owner of an 1899 De Dion Bouton and, as it happens, an 1899 De Dion Bouton is exactly what we see here in a parade in or near Stockholm. The year is unknown, but judging by the pick-up carrying it, it must have been sometime in the early 1930s.

Was it also Sweden’s first car? That’s possible, but probably not. At around the turn of the century, De Dion Bouton vehicles were imported to Sweden by no fewer than three companies, we’ve discovered: Svenska Cykelbörsen, Arvid Schubert's Factory & Handelsaktiebolag and a company named Patria. However, most of the early vehicles they brought over from France must have been tricycles, with plenty of pictures surviving of such vehicles in Swedish street scenes.

This four-wheeled car, which we think may be a 3½hp Voiturette, is also said to have been on display at the Swedish Technical Museum. We don’t think it’s there anymore, but we’re sure one of our Swedish readers will know. It was obviously very highly regarded at the time of the photograph, though, if people made that special pick-up bed to carry it around on. Who knows more about this De Dion-Bouton?

Words: Jeroen Booij,; picture: Fotografiska Stockholm
 

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