To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION at RM Sothebys' Auburn Fall event, 3 - 5
September 2020.
Estimate:
$550,000 - $650,000
- Fascinating history; originally one of the ten "JNs"
- Original chassis, engine, firewall, drivetrain, and
fenders
- Elegant and unusual color scheme
- Recent detailed mechanical and cosmetic preparation
THE DERHAM TOURSTER
The Tourster was Gordon Buehrig's favorite Duesenberg. There is a
lot to say about this handsome automobile, but the fact is that out
of all of the creations that the master designer drew up for the
mighty Model J, he preferred the Tourster, which speaks loudest of
all.
The design was for a five-passenger touring car on the long
153.5-inch wheelbase Model J chassis, which in his 1972
autobiography, Rolling Sculpture, Buehrig described it as being
"severely plain in ornamentation and [having] the unusual virtue of
being equally handsome with the top in the raised position or when
it is lowered." The length of the chassis exaggerated the car's
lowered proportions, created by moving the rear seat ahead of the
rear axle and the foot wells within the frame rails, which
increased room for passengers while also allowing the top and sides
of the body to be lower than on a standard phaeton.
With the Tourster, Buehrig also sought to solve a common problem of
dual-cowl phaetons of the time. They were often equipped with
second windshields to give weather protection to rear seat
passengers, but these windshields were mounted on a hinged metal
tonneau that had to be clumsily swung up out of the way each time a
passenger entered or exited the automobile. The Tourster's solution
was a rear windshield that slid up and down out of the back of the
front seat with the turn of a crank handle, providing a windbreak
that also looked appropriately dashing-and it stayed out of the
way.
The exclusive builder of the Tourster design was the Derham Body
Company of Rosemont, Pennsylvania, the favored coachbuilder of the
Philadelphia aristocracy. Eight original examples were built
in-period; perhaps because of the great beauty of their design, all
eight survive, have been restored, and remain well-cared-for in
some of the world's most prominent private collections.
Such was the popularity of the design that additional examples have
been produced to the original design in years since, on a variety
of platforms ranging from intact, complete original Model Js, to
assemblages of parts. The example offered here is, fortunately, one
of the finest examples of the former.
J-575: A DUESENBERG REBORN
Car no. J-575 retains its original engine, drivetrain, frame and
firewall with which it was delivered new, as well as the original
fenders of the attractive skirted design made optional on later
Model Js. Originally fitted with a sedan body, one of the ten "JN"
cars produced for Duesenberg by Rollston, the car was delivered new
to the aptly-named Merry Fahrney.
Heiress to her grandfather Dr. Peter Fahrney's patent medicine
fortune at the age of 25, "Madcap Merry" led a rather adventurous
life. She was one of the first female aircraft pilots, appeared in
Cecil B. deMille's 1934 version of Cleopatra as a way of making up
money when her family "allowance" was unexpectedly reduced, and
over the years married eight times. At one point, in 1938, she
found herself unexpectedly married to two men at once, a baron and
the fashion designer Oleg Cassini - the latter marriage having
taken place aboard her private plane. When the Baron filed suit,
she avoided the summons by fleeing a Los Angeles hotel concealed in
one of her own capacious luggage trunks. A favorite of gossip and
society columnists for much of her life, she was typical of the
colorful and dramatic characters that populated Duesenberg's
ledgers.
The car was later acquired in the 1940s by prolific Chicago
Duesenberg dealer, John Troka, who would own it several times
in-between short-term ownerships, well into the 1960s. Late in that
decade, the body was removed from the chassis, in preparation for
restoration; while the chassis and drivetrain were being restored,
the body was put into storage in a building that subsequently
burned to the ground, taking Rollston's creation with it. The
complete chassis and drivetrain survived and was acquired by Ken
Gardner of Chicago in 1969, who displayed the car sans coachwork at
the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club National Reunion; subsequently he
had a Tourster body built for the car by Carl Amsley of
Pennsylvania.
The completed Tourster was sold to longtime, avid Duesenberg
collector Richard Boeshore of Pennsylvania, who would keep it until
2001. It was then sold to Russell Yordy and remained in Yordy's
ownership until 2009, when it was sold to Canadian collectors Randy
and Mike Longfield. The car later passed to Terry Spilsbury of
Charlestown, New Hampshire, remaining in his ownership for five
years. The restoration has since been extensively freshened,
including beautiful paint in this unusual chocolate hue, and more
recently a new interior and $12,000 of mechanical work by a noted
West Coast shop.
This is among the finest "modern" Toursters, and an ideal
Duesenberg for the enthusiastic driver to enjoy this coming year.To
view this car and others currently consigned to this auction,
please visit the RM website at
rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/af20.
