Beschreibung:

Howard A. “Dutch” Darrin was a dapper, athletic, poised, creative, good looking, polo-playing war hero, a World War I pilot with an innate sense of style, proportion and balance. His family owned the Automatic Switch Company in New Jersey, inventors and makers of electro-mechanical devices such as the solenoid valve and switches employed by elevator makers. Dutch displayed an early and natural aptitude both for designing mechanical devices and for automobiles. Before entering the Army Signal Corps’ flying service he designed and built a successful prototype electromechanical shifting system for Willys automobiles. In 1923 he traveled back to Paris with Tom Hibbard to establish LeBaron’s bridgehead in Europe, then teamed up to form the firm of Hibbard & Darrin. When the Depression struck Hibbard returned to the U.S. but Dutch found a new partner, J. Fernandez, and continued to work in Paris as Fernandez et Darrin until 1937. Much of the work of both Hibbard & Darrin and Fernandez et Darrin catered to movie stars and high society including a Duesenberg J for Greta Garbo and cars for Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst, Gloria Swanson and many others. Hibbard & Darrin even bodied a Cadillac Town Car for Fred J. Fisher of Fisher Body. The coachwork Darrin built both on his own and in concert with Tom Hibbard was noted for its many innovations and intricate details. The stylized “arrowhead” beltline accent they created became a feature of many great classics. Exterior and interior handles were individually designed and custom made to complement the coachwork’s lines. Running boards were refined, sometimes minimized as teardrop-shaped step plates, other times intricately constructed of wood and metal to be self-draining and self-cleaning. Darrin’s folding top structures and mechanisms are legendary. Complex, they also complemented the coachwork and often provided for extra ventilation and visibility. Several were patented and successfully licensed to other high-end coachbuilders. A number of Darrin designs and collaborations have come to be appreciated as the ultimate in Thirties coachwork. Gracing the greatest chassis, including Duesenberg, Bentley, Hispano-Suiza, Mercedes-Benz, Isotta-Fraschini, Bentley and Voisin, they are recognized as some of the most exclusive, creative, imaginative and imposing designs of the Thirties. None of them are as well-remembered or had more long-lasting effect than the roughly one hundred convertible victorias built on Packard chassis from 1937 through 1942. The car offered here has been identified in print by Dutch Darrin as the second Packard Convertible Victoria he built and the one that was constructed for Clark Gable. It is the first five-seater. After winding up Fernandez et Darrin Dutch Darrin wound up in Hollywood where he quickly was accepted by the movie crowd where polo playing Dutch Darrin, complete with a carefully cultivated French accent, fit in perfectly. Darrin’s fledgling coachworks was with characteristic flair christened “Darrin of Paris”. Darrin of Paris’s first commission was a Ford roadster for Dick Powell. It was shortly followed by a two-seat convertible victoria roadster on a 1937 Packard One Twenty chassis for Chester Morris, soon to establish himself playing the fast-talking detective Boston Blackie. Darrin of Paris was as yet still little if any more than Dutch and his sketch pad so the initial body work was subcontracted while Darrin gradually put together a strong team including Paul Erdos Rudy Stoessel, Harry Fels, Oscar Haskey and front office man Bert Chalmers. The Darrin Convertible Victoria was based on the standard Packard Eight Business Coupe but there was little of the Packard left untouched when Darrin completed his ministrations. Part of Darrin’s inspired design and concept was that although the Darrin Convertible Victoria was instantly identifiable as a unique design it continued sufficient Packard identification that it was also impossible to be anyth