For Sale at Auction: 1937 Bugatti Type 57 in Atlanta, Georgia for sale in Atlanta, GA
Vehicle Description Chassis No.
57557 Engine No.
409 Body No.
20 The Beautiful Atalante The Type 57 represented the ultimate peak of the roadgoing eight-cylinder Bugatti's engineering and carried the company's most beautiful coachwork designs.
Most were directly influenced and in many cases designed by Ettore Bugatti's son, Jean, a brilliant young man with the artistic mindset and sympathy for fineness of line that ran in the family blood.
One of his most spectacular creations for the Type 57 was a particularly beautiful coupe, which featured a distinctive curved beltline molding, a favorite design touch of Jean, and a magnificent roofline that swept up from a sharply raked windshield to form a dramatic reverse-curve as it curled around to the rear deck.
It was a beautiful machine from any angle and in any trim - useful, as none of the examples produced were exact twins to one another, having been individually built to the exacting specifications of their owners.
According to a history report compiled on this particular car by Pierre-Yves Laugier, the design was first presented in French newspapers in the spring of 1935.
After the first ten examples had been built under the rather plain moniker of a Faux Cabriolet, the name Atalante was chosen to describe the car exhibited at the Paris Show in October 1935.
Only about 33 examples of the Atalante by any name were produced between April 1935 and December 1938.
Many of the survivors reside in some of the world's finest collections, where they are treasured for both the performance of their superlative, precise engineering and for the beauty of their French curves.
Chassis Number 57557 Body number 20 was ordered on 5 May 1937, and completed on 13 August; it was described in the factory coachwork register as a coupe with engine number 409 and chassis number 59577, originally finished in black with, remarkable as it seems, brown velvet upholstery! A specially positioned spare wheel and tire were fitted, concealed fully within the tail rather than in the typical Atalante position set down into the surface of the rear deck, as well as headlights mounted between the radiator shell and the crowns of the front fenders.
The car was sent to Paris for delivery to its original owner, Baron Louis Sers, who traded in his prior Bugatti, a former Paris Show demonstrator Galibier that he had bought scarcely a year earlier.
Fine Bugattis were part of the Baron's very large lifestyle, funded by the fortune of his estranged wife, Fernand Boutroux, which enabled him to enjoy great automobiles and to maintain homes in Neuilly and at St.
Leger en Yvelines.
Baron Sers registered the car in the summer of 1937 with Parisian plate 8244 RL 2, seen on the car in a photograph taken at the Bois de Boulogne.
He maintained it, in typical fashion, for as long as it amused him, until May 1939, when he traded it on a used Vanvooren-bodied coupe.
The following month, 57577 was sold to Roger Morand of Paris, described in his military files and on his wedding certificate as having the profession of racing driver.
So he was:
He had competed in a Type 35B in the early 1930s.
The car was fitted with the present supercharger, numbered 57, likely in this period.
Sometime around Mr.
Morand's passing in 1945, the car was sold but remained in storage in Paris until resurfacing, still with its original registration, in 1955.
It was then acquired by the longtime Bugatti mechanic and dealer, Gaston Docime, then shortly passed through the auspices of the prolific international Bugatti traders Jean de Dobbeleer and Gene Cesari, who were responsible for the vast majority of the Bugatti transactions to American buyers in this era.
In this instance, the buyer in question was Marland F.
Langley of Concord, New Hampshire, in 1957.
The car was listed with Mr.
Langley, proprietor with his father of a Concord garage, in Hugh Conway's seminal 1962 Bugatti Register.
Mr.
Langley later sold the Bugatti to longtime enthusiast Jim Stickley, then of Brookline, Massachusetts, more famous as a connoisseur of and authority in Rolls-Royces and vintage Bentleys, who described it to historian Laugier as being out of over 50 Classics I personally ownedby far the most incredible and one of the finest original cars I ever had.
He resold the Bugatti through Ed Jurist's Vintage Car Store in Nyack, New York, a legendary early purveyor of fine old automobiles, to longtime enthusiast Christopher Owen.
Mr.
Owen completed some restoration work on 57557 before selling it in 1979 to Thomas Perkins of Belvedere, California.
In this era, Mr.
Perkins, a pioneering venture capitalist, was one of the West Coast's best-known and most passionate collectors, with a focus on supercharged sports cars, of which he actually wrote a respected history.
He collected only the very finest machines, including such significant automobiles as the ex-Pope Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, the famed Gurney-Nutting Duesenberg Model SJ, an outstanding Mercedes-Benz 500 K Spezialroadster, and the prototype Squire roadster.
In Mr.
Perkins' ownership, 57557 was completely restored by the noted Phil Reilly and Company, then was judged First in Class at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 1981.
When Mr.
Perkins's interests began to evolve, the Bugatti moved to Japan, where it remained in a collection for fifteen years.
In 2004 it returned across the Pacific to the United States and was purchased by J.
Peter Ministrelli of Detroit, who was at the time building a small, select collection of important Full Classics.
After owning the car for two years, he sold it to prolific collector John O'Quinn, from whom it was bought by the Academy of Art University in August 2009.
During their ownership it has continued to be occasionally shown, including at the San Francisco International Auto Show in 2009 and several times at Western concours d'elegance.
Inspection of the car shows that it continues to wear much of its high-quality original Phil Reilly restoration, with a cosmetic freshening completed in the early 2000s by the former Alan Taylor & Co.
At the time of cataloging the car had recorded 19,911 miles.
It retains its original chassis plate, the original front axle stamped 809, and the original engine with its original chassis and engine number stampings; only the cam boxes may have been replaced during the early 1950s.
An original Stromberg UUR2 carburetor is fitted, and the Scintilla generator box retains its original tag.
The gearbox casing is also marked 409, as is the rear axle.
The body is stamped with its original number 20 on many of its panels, including the hood.
Within, the car features a dashboard of the style often seen on factory Type 57Cs as well as frequently on 1937-38 Atalantes.
Accompanying is the aforementioned Laugier report, as well as a full spare wheel and tire in the carpeted trunk.
This is an especially satisfying example of the rare and wonderful Atalante, one of the finest designs on the superb Type 57 chassis - immaculately finished and with a wonderful tale to tell.
.
57557 Engine No.
409 Body No.
20 The Beautiful Atalante The Type 57 represented the ultimate peak of the roadgoing eight-cylinder Bugatti's engineering and carried the company's most beautiful coachwork designs.
Most were directly influenced and in many cases designed by Ettore Bugatti's son, Jean, a brilliant young man with the artistic mindset and sympathy for fineness of line that ran in the family blood.
One of his most spectacular creations for the Type 57 was a particularly beautiful coupe, which featured a distinctive curved beltline molding, a favorite design touch of Jean, and a magnificent roofline that swept up from a sharply raked windshield to form a dramatic reverse-curve as it curled around to the rear deck.
It was a beautiful machine from any angle and in any trim - useful, as none of the examples produced were exact twins to one another, having been individually built to the exacting specifications of their owners.
According to a history report compiled on this particular car by Pierre-Yves Laugier, the design was first presented in French newspapers in the spring of 1935.
After the first ten examples had been built under the rather plain moniker of a Faux Cabriolet, the name Atalante was chosen to describe the car exhibited at the Paris Show in October 1935.
Only about 33 examples of the Atalante by any name were produced between April 1935 and December 1938.
Many of the survivors reside in some of the world's finest collections, where they are treasured for both the performance of their superlative, precise engineering and for the beauty of their French curves.
Chassis Number 57557 Body number 20 was ordered on 5 May 1937, and completed on 13 August; it was described in the factory coachwork register as a coupe with engine number 409 and chassis number 59577, originally finished in black with, remarkable as it seems, brown velvet upholstery! A specially positioned spare wheel and tire were fitted, concealed fully within the tail rather than in the typical Atalante position set down into the surface of the rear deck, as well as headlights mounted between the radiator shell and the crowns of the front fenders.
The car was sent to Paris for delivery to its original owner, Baron Louis Sers, who traded in his prior Bugatti, a former Paris Show demonstrator Galibier that he had bought scarcely a year earlier.
Fine Bugattis were part of the Baron's very large lifestyle, funded by the fortune of his estranged wife, Fernand Boutroux, which enabled him to enjoy great automobiles and to maintain homes in Neuilly and at St.
Leger en Yvelines.
Baron Sers registered the car in the summer of 1937 with Parisian plate 8244 RL 2, seen on the car in a photograph taken at the Bois de Boulogne.
He maintained it, in typical fashion, for as long as it amused him, until May 1939, when he traded it on a used Vanvooren-bodied coupe.
The following month, 57577 was sold to Roger Morand of Paris, described in his military files and on his wedding certificate as having the profession of racing driver.
So he was:
He had competed in a Type 35B in the early 1930s.
The car was fitted with the present supercharger, numbered 57, likely in this period.
Sometime around Mr.
Morand's passing in 1945, the car was sold but remained in storage in Paris until resurfacing, still with its original registration, in 1955.
It was then acquired by the longtime Bugatti mechanic and dealer, Gaston Docime, then shortly passed through the auspices of the prolific international Bugatti traders Jean de Dobbeleer and Gene Cesari, who were responsible for the vast majority of the Bugatti transactions to American buyers in this era.
In this instance, the buyer in question was Marland F.
Langley of Concord, New Hampshire, in 1957.
The car was listed with Mr.
Langley, proprietor with his father of a Concord garage, in Hugh Conway's seminal 1962 Bugatti Register.
Mr.
Langley later sold the Bugatti to longtime enthusiast Jim Stickley, then of Brookline, Massachusetts, more famous as a connoisseur of and authority in Rolls-Royces and vintage Bentleys, who described it to historian Laugier as being out of over 50 Classics I personally ownedby far the most incredible and one of the finest original cars I ever had.
He resold the Bugatti through Ed Jurist's Vintage Car Store in Nyack, New York, a legendary early purveyor of fine old automobiles, to longtime enthusiast Christopher Owen.
Mr.
Owen completed some restoration work on 57557 before selling it in 1979 to Thomas Perkins of Belvedere, California.
In this era, Mr.
Perkins, a pioneering venture capitalist, was one of the West Coast's best-known and most passionate collectors, with a focus on supercharged sports cars, of which he actually wrote a respected history.
He collected only the very finest machines, including such significant automobiles as the ex-Pope Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, the famed Gurney-Nutting Duesenberg Model SJ, an outstanding Mercedes-Benz 500 K Spezialroadster, and the prototype Squire roadster.
In Mr.
Perkins' ownership, 57557 was completely restored by the noted Phil Reilly and Company, then was judged First in Class at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 1981.
When Mr.
Perkins's interests began to evolve, the Bugatti moved to Japan, where it remained in a collection for fifteen years.
In 2004 it returned across the Pacific to the United States and was purchased by J.
Peter Ministrelli of Detroit, who was at the time building a small, select collection of important Full Classics.
After owning the car for two years, he sold it to prolific collector John O'Quinn, from whom it was bought by the Academy of Art University in August 2009.
During their ownership it has continued to be occasionally shown, including at the San Francisco International Auto Show in 2009 and several times at Western concours d'elegance.
Inspection of the car shows that it continues to wear much of its high-quality original Phil Reilly restoration, with a cosmetic freshening completed in the early 2000s by the former Alan Taylor & Co.
At the time of cataloging the car had recorded 19,911 miles.
It retains its original chassis plate, the original front axle stamped 809, and the original engine with its original chassis and engine number stampings; only the cam boxes may have been replaced during the early 1950s.
An original Stromberg UUR2 carburetor is fitted, and the Scintilla generator box retains its original tag.
The gearbox casing is also marked 409, as is the rear axle.
The body is stamped with its original number 20 on many of its panels, including the hood.
Within, the car features a dashboard of the style often seen on factory Type 57Cs as well as frequently on 1937-38 Atalantes.
Accompanying is the aforementioned Laugier report, as well as a full spare wheel and tire in the carpeted trunk.
This is an especially satisfying example of the rare and wonderful Atalante, one of the finest designs on the superb Type 57 chassis - immaculately finished and with a wonderful tale to tell.
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