To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION WITHOUT RESERVE at RM Sothebys' Amelia
Island event, 8 - 9 March 2019.
Estimate:
$200,000 - $250,000
- Offered from the Richard L. Burdick Collection
- A unique Custom Imperial created for the 1939 New York World's
Fair
- Used by King George VI, Queen Mary, and President Franklin D.
Roosevelt
- Displayed at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum
This 1939 Chrysler Custom Imperial parade phaeton was constructed
especially for that year's New York World's Fair. Chrysler
Corporation entrusted the project to Derham Body Company of
Rosemont, Pennsylvania.
Joseph Derham founded Rosemont Carriage Works, in the Philadelphia
suburb of that name, in 1887. His carriages were said to be the
equal of James Brewster's. Like Brewster, once the automobile
supplanted the horse Derham verged into auto bodies, the first of
these in 1907. For customers who could not afford bespoke bodies,
Derham commenced building a short-run series of prestige bodies,
five to about 40 at a time, marketing them through Packard and
Hudson dealers. Unlike other American coachbuilders, Derham
survived the Depression by offering modestly priced products and
faithful service to all their customers. The firm survived into the
1970s.
This unique Parade Phaeton was first displayed at the Chrysler
Pavilion at the Fair. It was then put to a royal task in June when
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England came through New York
as part of a North American tour. Built on one of 1939's 310 Custom
Imperial 144-in. wheelbase chassis, seven of which were supplied in
chassis-cowl form, the car sports dual side-mounts and elongated
wind-wings on the front doors. Trippe Safety Lights are mounted to
the front bumper. Especially fitted with high glass windows and
rear-facing jump seats for the purpose, it served the royal
entourage before they departed for Canada, where another Chrysler
phaeton, this time a Royal series six-cylinder model, had been
built for them.
After the Fair, this car went to a Chrysler executive garage in
Detroit, where it was used for official functions. In 1942, it was
used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor,
Michigan Governor Murray Van Wagoner, Chrysler president K.T.
Keller and War Production Board chairman Donald Nelson to tour
Chrysler's defense plants. When no longer needed for formal
functions, it was donated to the Roose-Vanker Post, American
Legion, of which Keller was Post Commander.
It remained with the Roose-Vanker Post until Bruce Thomas, a former
Chrysler engineer and historian with the Chrysler Historical
Collection, purchased it in the early 1980s, after a 40-year quest
to own the famous car! Freshened up and displayed at the Meadow
Brook Concours d'Elegance, it was honored as the Most Significant
Chrysler. Carefully conserved ever since, it shows barely 22,000
miles on the odometer. Its provenance as a parade car for VIPs is
evidenced by the brown leather in the rear seat, which shows more
wear than the driver's compartment.
Indeed, it is a car fit for a king.To view this car and others
currently consigned to this auction, please visit the RM website at
rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/am19.
