From Passion to Perfection
The Story of French Streamlined Styling, 1930-1939
By Richard Adatto
Editions SPE Barthelemy, Paris 2003
ISBN 2 912838 22 3
290 pages
|
|
|
There have been some potted stories about French coachbuilders like Saoutchik and Figoni & Falaschi (Phony and Flashy as the British loved to portray them) and some of the other dramatic French Carrossiers from the thirties. But when I have seen examples of their works being used for inspiration (or warnings, 'never to repeat') it has been as faded pictures cut from magazines, or own snap shots of badly or hardly restored cars from local concours.
But now most of the relevant cars that remain, and lots of those who have disappeared, are gathered between stiff covers, in a magnificent book by American collector Ricard Adatto. The sleeve portays him as the world's leading expert on French Streamlined Cars produced before the onset of the Second World War, and I believe it.
Even if the format is classic 'coffee table' this book is huge! The text is exhaustive, informed and very well written. But still, the tempation to let the illustrations speak for themselves is overwhelming. Jean-Paul Caron shot all the specially commissioned photographs for this book, but in addition to his magnificent work, there is a lot of original archive material, a large part of which I, at least, have never seen before.
Car historians will find much of interest, those who are able to read haven't had better and more comprehensive information about this theme since Anthony Blight's 'The French Sports Car Revolution'. But those who couldn't care less about chassis numbers or horsepower and number of cylinders, but think the aesthetics is what's important and interesting, also have a veritable feast here. All the great French designers of the era are here, Georges Paulin (who 'invented' the steel roofed cabriolet for Peugeot), Jean-Henri Labourdette, Carlo Delaisse, Jean Bugatti and many others, as are some of the biggest, most prolific coachbuilders of the time. And you have all the great cars like the Embiricos Bentley, André Dubonnetís one-offs, all the Talbot Tear-Drops, the Darlmats and some significant Voisins. In addition to the big and famous we also get a serving of the strange and wonderful, the Claveaus, the Andreau streamliners, the Mathis and the Gregoires.
For visual fill this book will last years. It will show you discipline and the most incredible baroque extravagances. It will teach you that there was a time when elegance was well defined, and you will understand some more of craft and craftsmen. And you will browse and browse and suddenly stop, stunned once more. Normally I advise against reading heavy books in bed – it hurts when it hits your nose. But there is no such danger here, you will never fall asleep with this one.
The ideal solution would be to buy two copies at once (maybe the other in French, which is also available). One for using and one for storing. A labour of love like this isn't often repeated. An index and a good bibliography does not do anything for the sheer delight the book delivers, but add much to it's usefulness.
|
