Book review — De Dion Bouton: The Veteran Years, 1899-1904

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Considering the popularity of De Dion-Boutons in the veteran car movement, it is extraordinary that they had, for so long, been so little-researched. Until recently, enthusiasts had to be content with Anthony Bird's 1971 Ballantine paperback, in which the entire company history was condensed into 160 compact pages, plus a wafer-thin Profile Publication addressing exclusively the single-cylinder models. The situation only started to improve in 2017, with the publication of Michael Edwards's first book, De Dion Bouton: An Illustrated Guide to Type & Specification, 1899-1904. That has been followed by a string of books looking, in minute detail, at different aspects of the Puteaux marque, most prominently the two volumes of The Tricycle Book, 1895-1902, through which was made available a wealth of historical information which many people, one suspects, never imagined even existed.

Enthusiasts who have seen Edwards's previous books will not be surprised by the quality and extent of his latest opus, The Veteran Years, 1899-1904, spread across three volumes and neatly contained within a handsome presentation case. In his own words, Edwards's first book had its limitations: "[It] represented the knowledge that was available at the time from a review of the contemporary literature and an inspection of a selection of vehicles from the period. In the intervening years, details of a great many more vehicles from Europe, Asia and the U.S.A. have been gathered and assessed, and documentary research has been extended to include the archives of several important institutions... Space constraints in the initial volume prevented any coverage of the individuals who provided the impetus for the early development of the De Dion-Bouton company and its subsequent success. This omission has now been corrected."

The Veteran Years does not cover tricycles or quadricycles, since they have been amply covered already. Its focus instead begins with the first voiturettes of 1899, and proceeds from there. As Edwards points out, we might more correctly call them petites voitures as De Dion-Bouton did at first, out of respect for the fact that Léon Bollée had coined the term voiturette for his forecars of 1896, but ultimately the name stuck. The voiturettes are the chief focus of the first book, while front-engined single-cylinder models dominate the second and the third is for twins. De Dion did not produce larger engines until the 1905 model year.

If, on first looking into this new release, we do not know immediately what to make of it, it is only because it fulfils so many simultaneous rôles; it is part encyclopædia, part miscellany and part spotter's guide. One suspects the task of ordering all the various strands of information contained within must have given Edwards a few headaches, but he does the logical and thing and starts at the beginning, with a company history. It was in the summer of 1882 that the Count de Dion was strolling through Paris, browsing the toy shops in search of a gift, when he caught sight of a particularly well-executed model steam engine. After making enquiries, he found himself in the workshop of its makers, the engineers Charles Trépardoux and Georges Bouton. The Count had the ambition and finances to develop and produce methods of self-propelled transport, and Bouton and Trépardoux possessed the appropriate technical knowledge. Trépardoux remained firmly wedded to steam power and left the company when de Dion decided that the future lay in internal combustion. The three figures are treated to their own concise biographies, in which popular perceptions of de Dion as the aristocratic bon vivant and Bouton as the tenaciously toiling brains of the enterprise are expanded upon and, where appropriate, redressed. Baron van Zuylen and the Lecouer family, both instrumental in the early development of De Dion, Bouton et Cie, are also so treated, and one particularly colourful double-page spread introduces the characters of Carolina Otero—La Belle Otero, as she was professionally known—and Michel Zélélé. Otero was a showgirl, one of Paris's most sought-after and not uncontroversial demi-mondaines, who had just turned 30 when De Dion-Bouton started producing cars. Zélélé was the Count de Dion's faithful Ethiopian chauffeur; both have been immortalised, but more or less anonymously, through their appearances in De Dion's beautiful Art Nouveau posters, which did so much to infuse early motoring with an aura of romance and glamour.

Unsurpassed original research

As the personalities behind De Dion, Bouton et Cie are described in their turn, so are the various models, but another aspect of history that is covered in as much detail as could reasonably be expected—more, in fact—is the marque in competition. Apart from the early tricycle races, one tends not to associate De Dion-Bouton with any great motor sport pedigree, because it was not to be seen storming away at the front of the great city-to-city races alongside Panhard and Mors. The company was, however, active within tours and trials, and participated in several of the great races in the voiturette classes, where its cars eschewed brute power in favour of a commitment to "adding lightness." A detailed account is given of the life of Georges Cormier, the Parisian De Dion and Renault concessionaire, who recognised the promotional value of expeditionary endurance drives years before such heroics as the Peking-Paris (in which Cormier himself drove for De Dion-Bouton) and New York-Paris drew international interest. In 1903, over 52 days, he drove a Type W 4,500 miles from Paris to Spain's Mediterranean coast, and then along north Africa to return to France viâ Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium. Of course, it generated very welcome publicity. A more gentle tour, which the now-Marquis de Dion arranged, was one of southern England in 1904. The party of automobilistes was to drive its De Dions 750 miles from Paris to Dover, onward to Land's End, and thence to London viâ Oxford. This might be supposed to have been a more minor occasion, but the fact that Edwards has obtained for publication a full 10 photographs from the tour, including a particularly fine one outside Sir David Salomons's motor stables, plus illustrations from the route booklet, makes it majorly fascinating.

That The Veteran Years is highly interesting there can be no doubt. But, one might ask, as an existing or prospective owner of a De Dion, what use is it likely to be? Simply put, should you have any questions at all about the correct specification, identification or appearance of your particular car, the answer will probably be found within. Edwards has studied in exhaustive detail dozens of different surviving cars, from the earliest Type D voiturettes of 1899 to the Type Y of 1904. The fact that De Dion-Bouton had, in the space of five years, produced a range of models spanning almost the entire alphabet, a consequence of Bouton's "feverish technical output and relentless change in vehicle specification," is bewildering to the modern enthusiast, but Edwards has made sense of it all. Every model is described and illustrated down to its most minute particulars. Photographs and technical drawings cover everything from chassis plans to dismantled ignition assembles and water pump internals. For every model, the bare tubular chassis, axles, radiators, fuel tanks, driving controls, brakes, wheel hubs, foot plates, and bodywork, from bonnets to seat assemblies, have been photographed so that one may begin the book in ignorance and finish it virtually an expert. The value of this needs hardly to be expanded upon—if you are trying to identify or restore a veteran De Dion, or simply rectify one which, through the years, has become a hodge-podge of non-original parts, Edwards's research must prove invaluable.

It does not stop there. When you are satisfied with all you have learnt about the products from Puteaux, you can brush up on the dozens of marques, French and foreign, which produced licensed copies of De Dions or relied on De Dion engines and other components. Edwards does not attempt to cover this subject comprehensively (another three volumes might be required) but he does produce what one supposes might be the most expansive writing on the topic to date. Renault, Hurtu and Adler will be familiar, but perhaps not Boursand, La Mouche or Léon Buat. Where there is a extra complication is with Lacoste et Battmann, which produced complete cars, frequently with De Dion engines, but sold them to other businesses, mainly in Britain, which marketed them under their own names. Edwards has identified 52 British marques to have offered what were essentially "badge-engineered" Lacoste et Battmanns, almost all of them hopelessly obscure, plus four from France and two from the Antipodes. Edwards notes that so many of the surviving Lacoste cars have lost their original badges or plaques, but there were numerous chassis details which made them identifiable as Lacoste et Battmann products. These, again, are described in detail.

Obscure information comes to light

Other aspects of early De Dions which are not generally known about, but which are covered nevertheless, include its commercial chassis and also its very short-lived flirtation with electric carriages. These later types, like so many other electric vehicles, were large, formal constructions which preserved the elegance and grandeur of the carriage age, but De Dion's involvement petered out, with the Marquis frustrated by the weight of the batteries and their limited range.

The production quality of the books befits the labour of love which obviously they have been, with their attractive covers and crisp historic photographs. On the subject of the historic images, many of them will not have been seen before; highlights include a crystal-clear set of pictures of the 1898 voiturette prototype, with its complete absence of rear suspension, plus a copy of a page from an 1880s Trépardoux et Cie brochure illustrating some of the firm's mighty steamers—what wouldn't one give to unearth a Berline de voyage today, in all its beastly majesty?

Had Edwards, having transformed De Dion-Bouton from an under-researched marque to one which has now been covered to a point that no reasonable person could expect more, been content to rest on his laurels following his first Illustrated Guide to Type & Specification, nobody could have begrudged it. The fact that he has ploughed on and followed it up with a work of even greater originality and magnitude speaks volumes for his dedication as an enthusiast and historian. At this juncture, it would be sheer ingratitude to ask for more of him. All the same, one can always hope...

De Dion Bouton: The Veteran Years, 1899-1904 is published by Surrenden Press and priced at £175.00. Readers who wish to purchase a copy may do so by following this link.

Words: Zack Stiling

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