JB Judkins Company

JB Judkins Company Judkins & Goodwin Judkins & Haskell John B. Judkins & Son
legal form
founding	1857
resolution	1942
Seat	Merrimac , Massachusetts
Branch	Body shop

The JB Judkins Company (short: Judkins) was an American manufacturer of carriages and automobile bodies . Alongside Brunn , LeBaron and Rollston, Judkins is one of the classic bodywork companies in the USA. Before the Second World War there was a particularly close business relationship with Ford's luxury brand Lincoln .

Company history

Lincoln 172C sedan with Judkins body (1929)

Duesenberg Model J with Judkins body (1932)

Carriage building

The JB Judkins Company had its roots in the mid-19th century. In 1857, 22-year-old John B. Judkins founded the wheelwright business Judkins & Little with Isaak B. Little in the city of Amesbury (later: Merrimac) . In the following decades there were numerous changes of investors, as a result of which the company was renamed several times. At times it was called Judkins & Goodwin, later Judkins & Haskell and from 1883, after the founder's son had become a partner, John B. Judkins & Son. In 1909 the company was finally named JB Judkins Company.

Judkins initially manufactured high-quality horse - drawn vehicles. The first body for an automobile was created as early as 1897. In the first decade of the 20th century, Judkins ran the production of carriages and automobile bodies in parallel; In 1910 - in the same year as its competitor Brewster - Judkins gave up carriage production completely.

Individual automobile bodies

Before the First World War, Judkins manufactured individual automobile bodies for high-quality chassis from Mercer , Peerless , Pierce-Arrow and Renault . At that time, the superstructures were tailored to the needs of the respective customer in terms of design and equipment. There was no series production. At that time Judkins was already specializing in closed bodies - a body shape that was unusual and very expensive at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1919, a major order from Mercer for 200 open bodies that Judkins could not process alone led to the establishment of the subsidiary Merrimac , which was independently run in the 1920s and existed until 1934.

Volume producer for Lincoln

In the 1920s, Judkins transformed into a series manufacturer through regular orders from the luxury brand Lincoln, which has been part of Ford since 1922 . While Lincoln's standard bodies usually came from Murray , Judkins, together with Brunn and Fleetwood , supplied supplementary bodies that were stylistically more unusual or of higher quality. The Judkins bodies were also offered in catalogs from Lincoln dealers. Lincoln became Judkins' largest client in the 1920s, behind which work for Duesenberg (27 copies), Packard , Pierce-Arrow and Winton were clearly retreating. After Judkins had made six bodies a week in 1921, the output doubled in the following years; In 1928, with 24 bodies per week, the high (short-term) utilization was reached. On average, Judkins built around 500 bodies a year until 1932. From 1929 to 1939, Judkins produced a total of 5,904 bodies for Lincoln, more than any other supplier.

As a result of the global economic crisis , the demand for high-priced, individual luxury vehicles decreased across the country. Judkins was affected by this, as was other bodywork manufacturers. It is true that the output at Judkins decreased significantly in the 1930s. While some competitors such as Waterhouse or Brewster gave up body production entirely, Judkins was able to survive the phase of economic depression at the beginning of the 1930s thanks to intact relationships with Lincoln and Ford.

Judkins' automobile bodies were initially designed by Walter Yeltan and in the 1920s by the Dutchman John F. Dobben (1889–1974). In 1930 Roland L. Stickney took over the role of chief designer at Judkins, while Dobben took care of the technical implementation and the supervision of operational processes.

Judkins' bodies were usually considered elegant and restrained. An exception was the Coaching Brougham , a one-off that Dobben designed in 1927 for the chassis of a Lincoln L Type . The yellow and black painted body was modeled on a carriage.

Sterling Diners

Sterling Diner

Another pillar of Judkins from 1934 was the production of so-called sterling diners , i.e. H. Snack stands that were assembled from pressed, standardized metal parts using modular technology. When assembled, they gave the impression of a parked trailer. The Sterling Diners should provide financial security for the company; in fact, however, they contributed to the economic decline. In order to secure sales of the Stirling Diners, which cost more than US $ 10,000, Judkins had to offer its customers financing options. When the American economy went through a period of weakness just before the beginning of World War II, many customers could no longer service the loans. The defaults immediately led to Judkins becoming insolvent.

The JB Judkins Company was liquidated in 1942 due to bankruptcy.

literature

Richard M. Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930-1980 . New York (Beekman House) 1984. ISBN 0-517-42462-2 .

Web links

• Company history on the website www.coachbuilt.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Company history on the website www.coachbuilt.com (accessed on January 1, 2016).
2. ^ ^{A b} Judkins - Where Fine Coachwork is a Heritage. www.cccamuseum.org, January 1, 2012, accessed January 2, 2016 . 
3. ^ In the 1920s Judkins made a total of 200 bodies for Packard, which were created in small tranches; see. Company history on the website www.coachbuilt.com (accessed January 1, 2016).
4. ↑ Illustration on the website www.ultimatecarpage.com (accessed on January 2, 2016).