Derham

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Duesenberg Model J Tourster (1933), built by Derham after a design by Gordon Buehrig
Packard Super Eight Phaeton by Derham (17th series, 1939) owned by Juan and Eva Perón
Packard Custom Super Eight Derham Town Car Model 2226 (1949)

The Derham Body Co. was an American Stellmacher operation , in Rosemont ( Pennsylvania was located).

Company history

The company was founded in 1887 by Joseph J. Derham (1865–1928) as Derham Rosemont Carriage Works near Philadelphia . At first carriages were made. From 1907 the company also dealt with the construction of car bodies. The specialty were structures that change with the seasons. Chassis were equipped with a summer or winter body at the customer's request. The body that was not needed was stored at Derham (similar to winter tires today in summer). In 1916, Derham's sons Philip, James and Joseph jun. into the company. At the same time, a second plant was opened in Philadelphia.

Semi-Customs

From the beginning of the 1920s, the procedure described above went out of fashion again. For this, Derham offered the conversion of existing bodies to new chassis. Joseph jun. died and his brother Enos joined the company. In the mid-1920s, Derham had 200 employees.

In cooperation with larger automobile dealerships, Derham began to manufacture semi-customs . These were special bodies which were manufactured according to the high requirements for one-offs. However, five to 20 copies of the same design were typically made. This allowed a much more rational and thus more cost-effective implementation. The usual procedure was to present drawings to the customer. If an order came about, Derham tried to bring the design to other brand representatives. This collaboration was particularly close with Packard and Hudson . Up to 1932, besides custom-made products, small series, e.g. E.g. a Packard 433 Six Convertible (1926), 100 cars on Lincoln chassis, 40 Duesenberg J / SJ Town Cars and some 5-seater Arlington sports sedans. From 1930 to 1934 the Tourster Phaeton was offered on the same chassis. The drafts came from the Duesenberg chief designers Jesse Herbert Newport ("Arlington") and Gordon Buehrig, respectively . The best-known Arlington , nicknamed "Twenty Grand", was created in 1933 at Rollston for the A Century of Progress World Exhibition.

In 1928 the founder Joseph J. Derham senior died. At the same time, his son Philip left the company and founded the floyd -Derham wheelwright together with a partner . The company wasn't particularly successful. Philip later returned to his parents' business and Derham took over the remaining jobs from Floyd-Derham. The company's specialty has meanwhile been the construction of bodies based on European models on American chassis. So one made z. B. a structure modeled on a Rolls-Royce on the chassis of a Ford Model T .

From the mid-1930s, a Ford Model A Town Car was also offered in series, which, unlike most special designs, was available at affordable prices. From 1938 Derham only supplied modifications to existing bodies, e.g. B. for vehicles from Chrysler and DeSoto .

Upheaval

During the Second World War , the company kept afloat with orders for field kitchens for the US Army, floats for seaplanes and bulkheads for Vickers PBY and PBN engines.

In 1946 Derham resumed custom-made car bodies. In the following years vehicles for crowned heads in the Middle East were created, e.g. B. for King Faruq of Egypt and King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia . In 1947, an extra-long convertible sedan based on the Packard Clipper was created for the Sheikh of Kuwait , Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah . But also Raymond Loewy , Pope Pius XII. , Harry S. Truman and Gary Cooper worked at Derham.

For The American Sports Car Co. (TASCO), Derham built a futuristic design by Gordon Buehrig in 1948 with an aluminum body reminiscent of an airplane fuselage and detached, steered fiberglass fenders . The vehicle with the oldest proven "Targa roof", consisting of two removable glass roof halves, remained a prototype.

For a Dodge dealer in New York Derham built a coupé with stylistic borrowings from Raymond Loewy's Studebaker Starlight on the Dodge D24 from 1948; the vehicle still exists. Around this time a massive All Weather Town Car was built based on the Packard Super Eight from 1948. A total of three chauffeur-driven limousines were built on the basis of the Hudson Commodore from 1948, the first being ordered by the wife of the Hudson President Roy D. Chapin .

Small series were created for Cadillac and Packard . Patrician Custom Formal Sedan with leather cover on the roof, small rear window and extremely luxurious interior.

Derham built a convertible based on factory specifications on the Continental Mark II on behalf of the Ford subsidiary Continental . A production version planned for 1957 failed because of the immense costs.

James Derham died in 1956; his brother Enos, who had previously only dealt with constructions, took over the management. In 1964 he sold the building and operations to Al Garthwaite jun. Derham had now switched to equipping Cadillac and Lincoln limousines with bulletproof glass. From 1967, classic car restorations were also carried out. In 1971, Enos, the last member of the Derham family, left the company.

Since 1972, the former Derham operating functions under the name Chinetti-Garth Waite Importers as an importer of Ferrari vehicles. Enos Derham died in 1974.

Web links

Commons : Derham  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  • Jon M. Bill: Duesenberg Racecars & Passenger Cars Photo Archive. (= Photo Archive Series). Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum (Ed.), Iconografix, Hudson WI, ISBN 1-58388-145-X . (English)
  • Dennis Adler: Duesenberg. Heel-Verlag, Königswinter 2005, ISBN 3-89880-487-9 .
  • Don Butler: Auburn Cord Duesenberg. (= Crestline Series ). Crestline Publishing, 1992, ISBN 0-87938-701-7 . (English)
  • Beverly R. Kimes (Ed.): Packard, a history of the motor car and the company. 1st edition. Princeton 1978, ISBN 0-915038-11-0 . (English)
  • George H. Dammann, James A. Wren: Packard. (= Crestline series). Motorbooks International, Osceola WI, ISBN 0-7603-0104-2 . (English)
  • Hugo Pfau: The Coachbuilt Packard. Dalton-Watson, London / Motorbooks International, Minneapolis 1973, ISBN 0-901564-10-9 . (English)
  • Mark A. Patrick (Ed.): Packard Motor Cars 1935-1942 Photo Archive. Iconographix, Osceola WI 1996, ISBN 1-882256-44-1 (English)
  • Mark A. Patrick (Ed.): Packard Motor Cars 1946-1958 Photo Archive. Iconographix, Osceola WI 1996, ISBN 1-882256-45-X . (English)
  • RM Clarke (Ed.): Packard Gold Portfolio 1946-1958. Motorbooks International, ISBN 1-870642-19-8 . (English)
  • Nathaniel D. Dawes: The Packard: 1942–1962. AS Barnes & Co., Cranbury NJ, 1975, ISBN 0-498-01353-7 . (English)
  • The Packard Cormorant. Packard Automobile Club organ. Vol.LIV, No. 129, Winter 2008. (Library of Congress card No 76-16204; 1952 (Packard) - Unique in All The World ) (English)
  • Paul R. Woudenberg: Lincoln and Continental 1946–1980 - The classic Postwar Years. New edition. Motorbooks International, Osceola WI (USA) 1993, ISBN 0-87938-730-0 (English)
  • George Hildebrand (Ed.): The Golden Age of the Luxury Car - An Anthology of Articles and Photographs from Autobody. 1927-1931. Dover Publications, 1980, ISBN 0-486-23984-5 . (English)
  • Paul R. Woudenberg: Lincoln and Continental 1946–1980 - The classic Postwar Years. New edition. Motorbooks International, Osceola WI (USA) 1993, ISBN 0-87938-730-0 .
  • The Packard Cormorant. ; Packard Automobile Club organ. Vol.LIV, No. 129, Winter 2008. (Library of Congress card No 76-16204; 1952 (Packard) - Unique in All The World. ) (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1996, p. 499
  2. ↑ a b c coachbuilt.co,: Derham.
  3. ↑ conceptcarz.com: TASCO.
  4. ↑ conceptcarz.com Dodge D24 Custom Coupé Derham (1948).
  5. ↑ Kimes: Packard. 1978, p. 539.
  6. ↑ conceptcarz.com Hudson Commodore Eight Limousine Derham (1948).