To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION at RM Sothebys' Monterey event, 15 - 17
August 2019.
- Delivered new to legendary adventurer Louise Arner Boyd
- Driven 6,300 miles on a research trip through Poland in
1935
- Ownership by two private collections in the last half
century
- Prominently featured in J.M. Fenster's Packard: The Pride
- The basis for the popular model produced by the Franklin
Mint
- A well-known Dietrich Individual Custom with a fabulous
history
In 1920 gold-mine owner John Franklin Boyd died and left his entire
estate�$3 million and a manse in San Rafael, California�to his only
living daughter, Louise. One might have expected a society lady of
the time to spend the rest of her days idly spending the principal,
but Louise Arner Boyd, it would soon be proven, was different. She
loved adventure�not merely funding the expeditions of others, but
being in the thick of it, visiting new and different nations and
exploring their rugged terrain. She traveled the world in search of
new ideas and new discoveries, most prominently to the Arctic
Circle, an area in which she became a respected expert after seven
painstakingly planned research junkets and the publication of two
well-received books. Today an area in Greenland adjacent to a
glacier she studied is known as Louise Boyd Land.
She was still a lady, of course; she loved to attend balls, often
wearing on her gown the L�gion d'Honneur medal that France awarded
her for searching for the lost explorer Roald Amundsen. She
traveled widely, doing so in style, staying at the best hotels she
could find and usually traversing new-torn paths in her own
chauffeured automobile. According to J.M. Fenster's Packard: The
Pride, in 1934 Miss Boyd's automobile was this Packard Twelve, an
individual custom convertible sedan by Dietrich, one of the most
lush and expensive models available. It was built to her order,
with a division window twixt the front and rear seats and reading
lights to allow her to make notes during the journey.
In 1935 Boyd traveled with the car and her family's longtime
chauffeur, Percy Cameron, to Poland as a delegate of the United
States government to the International Geographic Congress in
Warsaw. The American Geographical Society asked her to extend her
stay and undertake a photographic study of rural Poland's various
cultures and ethnic groups, and she did so. Driven by Cameron, the
Individual Custom Packard carried Boyd alongside horse-drawn carts
on roads that had likely never seen an automobile, much less one so
grand. It fit into few garages, but that was no matter, because
there were few garages. At the monastery at Lawra Poczajowska, the
Packard spent the night in the courtyard, with one of the bearded,
hooded monks slumbering inside to prevent its theft.
At the end of the journey, Boyd, Cameron, and the Packard returned
triumphantly to the U.S., and her meticulously detailed report and
over 500 photographs were published in 1937 as Polish Countrysides,
many including this car.
Louise Boyd eventually moved on to other adventures and other
automobiles, but remained true to Packards, as well as to Dietrich;
Raymond Dietrich later customized a 1952 sedan for her. The
Individual Custom Twelve that had served faithfully in Europe
remained in the United States. According to Edward J. Blend's The
Magnificent Packard Twelve of Nineteen Thirty-Four, later owners
were Richard Jenkins of New Jersey and Phillip Goddard of Iowa.
The car was then acquired by the late Bill Hirsch of Newark, New
Jersey, who beautifully restored it to original condition. Hirsch
was very proud of the Packard, which he showed extensively; to this
day, the logo of his automotive finish and upholstery supply
company is the unmistakable profile of this Packard. In his
ownership the car was photographed by Roy Querry and appeared as
one of twenty special automobiles described at length in J.M.
Fenster's Packard: The Pride, published in 1992. It was also used
as the basis for the highly regarded model of the individual custom
convertible sedan produced by the Franklin Mint.
In 1999 the car was acquired by the present owner, in whose superb
collection it has resided for twenty years. He notes that it was
used on at least four CCCA CARavans, while remaining in fine enough
condition to achieve its AACA Senior First Prize in 2000, followed
by, in 2001, its CCCA Premier First and the AACA's Joseph Parkin
Award, recognizing it as the most outstanding Packard in its
division.
The car was freshened in 2015, receiving a cosmetic restoration by
Colour Restoration of Longmont, Colorado, in time for exhibition at
the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, where it was an award winner
in the legendarily rigorous American Classic Open Packard class.
The following year it received the Don Sommer Award as Most
Significant Classic at the Concours d'Elegance of America at St.
John's, an impressive achievement in a year that saw the attendance
of numerous other significant Dietrich designs.
Simply put, today Louise Boyd's Packard remains an automobile
worthy of its original owner�the sleek embodiment of adventurous
spirit, meticulous preparation, and faultless good taste.To view
this car and others currently consigned to this auction, please
visit the RM website at
rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mo19.
