Mlle. Bertani wears Chanel

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As the temperature drops to freezing outside ( again) , this writer has chosen a lady with a fur to grace your screen. She is Mlle. Bertani and her car is a 1937 Hispano-Suiza K6 4 door pillarless saloon bodywork with Conduite Intérieure from the workshops of Saoutchik Coachbuilders.

When the 3 volume magnum opus about Jacques Saoutchik dropped through PreWarCar’s mail box, we downed tools and wallowed in luxury for a while. Peter Larsen and Ben Erickson have produced a masterpiece of research about a fascinating man who fled from Belarus to Paris in 1898 and using his experience as a cabinet maker, rose to fame as ( arguably) France’s greatest coachbuilder.

Mlle. Bertani’s stylish outfit and accessories are by Chanel which leads us into the world in which Saoutchik moved. (This chic ensemble won the Grand Prix d'Honneur.) He understood the importance of moving in the right circles in order to sell extraordinary cars to extraordinary people.

Volume 1-‘The life of a jeweller in steel’ - is the fascinating story of how Iakov Savtchuk left his Jewish family home in Belarus and, after changing his name to Jacques Saoutchik, navigated his way through Russian pogroms, France during the Dreyfus affair and ultimately to the German occupation of France. We learn about a fascinating story in a fascinating era.

Author Larsen was lucky to have free access to the massive Saoutchik dossier found by restorer David Cooper at Rétromobile – invaluable since the factory archives were tragically destroyed by fire in the ‘50s. Another essential catalyst was his unprecedented access to the family files after meeting Saoutchik’s daughter Jacquemine Guilloux (whose mother was Saoutchik’s mistress).

The book is richly illustrated with photographs and the frequent anecdotes make the story all the more enjoyable. These were the beginnings of Concours d'Elegance for automobiles and 1907 to 1913 was a euphoric time for the wealthy. ‘While socialism was on the rise, France was the shimmering queen of a great Europe-wide festivity of opulent luxury…’

Volume 2 – ‘The language of design’- is a celebration of Saoutchik design where Larsen has assembled a collection of rare brochures and reproduced them in a high quality which makes it an enjoyable experience to settle down with the book and immerse yourself in the subject which is impossible to do via a computer screen.

Volume 3 – ‘Heavenly Bodies. The Music of The Spheres in Steel’ – will satisfy those with an appetite for the products, designs, serial numbers of the known Saoutchik cars along with what is known of their fate. 448 pages profusely illustrated with high quality images.

We shall re-visit this fabulous work in days to come – there is so much to enjoy - and because it is a limited edition we encourage you to act quickly before it is sold out. Inevitably, more material has come to light since publication date, including the Baillon collection, and a fourth addendum volume will be published in time for Rétromobile where the authors and publishers have arranged book signings.

Text Robin Batchelor, pictures courtesy Dalton Watson Fine Books.

 

 

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