Schutte Body Corporation

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Charles Schutte Body Company
Schutte Body Corporation
Schutte-Blue Ribbon Body Corporation
legal form Corporation
founding 1910
resolution 1927
Seat Lancaster , Lancaster County , Pennsylvania , USA
management Charles Edward Schutte
Branch Body construction (special and series production)

The Charles Schutte Body Company , later renamed Schutte Body Corporation , was an American manufacturer of commercial vehicle and automobile bodies , which in the period between the two world wars also manufactured individual bodies for luxury vehicles , primarily of American origin. The company was a supplier of factory bodies for Argonne and Duesenberg . In 1926 it received public attention as part of a failed merger.

Company history

The Charles Schutte Body Company was founded in 1910 by Charles Edward Schutte in Lancaster (Pennsylvania) and initially manufactured bodies for commercial vehicles, including buses . Charles E. was one of four children of Charles Calvin Schutte (1857–?) And Stella Selinda b. Steele (1866–?) Possibly the company was a reorganization of the father's car manufacturing company. The oldest known car bodies from Schutte are an early Saxon small car (the brand produced from 1913) and a Cadillac Thirty from 1914 with a very angular front design typical of Schutte . Both bodies were designated as Military Sport Roadsters ; this appears to have been an early specialty of the company. The body is described as "attractive but minimalistic." The customer for the Saxon was a Sergeant Gandy of the United States Marine Corps . Schutte advertised the body type as popular with officers ; the vehicles were very well made and comfortable.

In 1918 a roadster body was created for the prototype of the Argonne . The structure consisted of aluminum sheet. A special feature were "motorcycle fenders" at the front, which rotated with the steering. Some of the later series bodies of the promising brand from Jersey City (New Jersey) are attributed to Schutte .

Catalog bodies

An exhaustive list of chassis with Schutte bodies is difficult to draw up. A special feature of the manufacturer was to offer open bodies "for every chassis".

In 1919 a Type T-70, Turtle Deck Model or S-50, Special Turtle Deck Model were listed. "Turtle" referred to the rounded stern. In the S-50 it contained the spare wheel. Anyone who refrained from carrying it in the rear (mounting it on the side of the vehicle was also an option) could instead order a convertible top that was open on the rear.

The company may initially have specialized in such open bodies, but later it became better known for its conservative limousines with opulent interiors in the Rococo style, including handcrafted carvings and upholstery fabrics with floral decorations.

Schutte radiator grille and bonnet

When a customer ordered a special body, the usual procedure was for the automaker to deliver a running chassis to the body builder. Depending on the manufacturer, this consisted of the theoretically mobile chassis with drive and wheels, the radiator with mask, pressed sheet metal parts for the bonnet and fenders and running boards. The scope of delivery often also included the dashboard, headlights, lamps and fittings. At Schutte , the customer received the desired structure, but could also order further modifications. There was an in-house radiator grille according to its own design and the correspondingly adapted bonnet. The Schutte front was very reminiscent of Rolls-Royce vehicles. It was of course also available for catalog bodies. It appears that the company offered this transformation very early on; the Cadillac from 1914 mentioned at the beginning was already designed in this way.

Next took Schutte on request also technical adjustments. This also included such massive interventions as changing the wheelbase , for which the main chassis beams had to be cut.

Schutte Wheel Discs

Schutte also sold its own line of wheel covers at an early stage , which were also used on many of the self-body vehicles and can also be found on advertisement illustrations. These wheel covers were quite popular in the early 1920s, although they were very expensive at US $ 75 for a set of 4. Usually these disks were placed on the wheel hub in front of the wheel . It was fastened with the wheel lock. It usually worked with the standard wheel attachment as well as with a central lock . Schutte used 22- gauge steel in its production , the large decorative lids were made of cast aluminum. The covers were suitable for both artillery and wire-spoke wheels . Additional covers were available for US $ 15; the nickel-plated version cost US $ 20 per piece and the lacquered version cost US $ 25. At times they seem to have made up a significant part of sales.

Factory and special bodies

If a customer showed specific interest, he was presented with a leather-bound portfolio that, in addition to the Schutte lettering, also bore the customer's name in gold letters. It contained suggestions based on examples on chassis from Hispano-Suiza , Duesenberg , Rolls-Royce , Stevens-Duryea and Cadillac . Schutte bodies do not appear to have been made for all of these brands . This has been proven, as has been seen, with Cadillac . Schutte seems to have contributed factory bodies for the Duesenberg Model A ; In any case, the company delivered small series of closed bodies. Sedan and Coupés are noted. Contemporary photos show several Duesenberg Model A's allegedly built by Schutte : a four- window Sedan or Sport Sedan with a shortened rear, slanted windscreen, upholstered roof and storm bars, an elegant chauffeur limousine on a long wheelbase and a four to five-seater Opera Coupé from 1922 1926. This could be a Brougham , as listed as a factory body in 1924; these terms refer to very similar vehicle concepts.

A saloon was built on a 6½ liter Bentley chassis . The superstructures for Argonne have already been mentioned. In addition, chassis from Franklin , Locomobile , Marmon , Oldsmobile , Packard , Peerless and Pierce-Arrow were also dressed. The latter is a Dual Cowl Phaeton on an extra-long chassis with a 156-inch (3962 mm) wheelbase from 1922. The vehicle, about the size of a smaller truck, had checkerboard running boards, an altimeter, and an ice water dispenser. The oldest known body for Cadillac is the aforementioned Roadster from 1914. Known are another from 1921 as well as a six-seater Touring from 1925 and a chauffeur limousine from 1926. The latter two apparently also received Schutte's treatment of the vehicle front in Rolls-Royce style as well as fashionable, barrel-shaped Springfield headlights. On the other hand, a Rolls-Royce Phantom II, also mentioned in connection with Schutte , is likely to be mistaken: The Phantom II did not appear until three years after the end of the Schutte Body Corporation , and the noted chassis number 127XJ belongs to a 1929 D'Ieteren Four -door Imperial Cabriolet built to designs by Hibbard & Darrin . One possible reason for this could have been a mix-up with Robert Schuette , who was a representative for Rolls-Royce in Manhattan until 1925 or 1926 .

The Schutte Special

Charles Schutte had a sports car built for himself in 1921, which attracted considerable attention because of its purist shape, practically without a body and its extravagant details. The sports car in the style of earlier Speedsters had no doors, a minimal body, a barrel-shaped tank behind the seats and a vertically mounted spare wheel in the rear. The body only consisted of the bonnet, fenders, the cover of the chassis side members and a kind of luggage compartment in the rear. It probably contained completely removable accessories from the vehicle. This included the convertible top, a foldable windshield for attachment to the steering column and two emergency seats that could be installed next to the tank and across the direction of travel.

Special design elements were four round air inlets on each side of the bonnet and the cladding of the free-standing seat shells with braided raffia. The in-house wheel covers were also used here.

It is not known which chassis was used. The Schutte Special was powered by a Rochester-Duesenberg four-cylinder in - line engine with an allegedly 103 bhp (76.8 kW) output.

August Duesenberg's Roadster

From August S. Duesenberg is known to one of the last built Model A went. The vehicle with the chassis number D61S was bodied as a roadster by Schutte in 1926 . The unique piece on an extended chassis was apparently also used by Duesenberg as a test vehicle for new ideas. It was still in his possession when he died in 1955 and still exists today.

Taxis and fuselages

Schutte supplied bodies for commercial vehicles, buses and regional taxi operators. It was not uncommon at the time for taxi operators to have their vehicles manufactured; these often bore the brand names of the operating company, and collaborations between car manufacturers and series body manufacturers analogous to car production were also common.

The trade magazine Aerial Age Weekly reported in its June 13, 1921 issue that Schutte also manufactured or modified aircraft fuselages for the Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" and other smaller aircraft.

Failed takeover and end

In the summer of 1926, the Schutte Body Corporation tried to take over the Blue Ribbon Body Corporation in Bridgeport (Connecticut) . It was a very respected company founded in 1907 that produced factory bodies for Porter and Locomobile . Blue Ribbon was also a well-known supplier of ambulances and hearses, which were offered as an assembled vehicle with chassis from various manufacturers, such as Cadillac , Packard , Willys-Knight and others. In addition to commercial vehicle bodies, special bodies were also created for Cadillac , Franklin , Hupmobile and Packard . With the delivery of the car bodies for 1924-1925 in New York City produced Traveler -Taxi the Taxicab Manufacturing Company was Blue Ribbon also a competitor in this market.

It was planned that a new company would succeed both Schutte and Blue Ribbon . The friendly takeover was well advanced, a purchase price was agreed and the successor company, the Schutte-Blue Ribbon Body Company , had already been set up when the project was legally stopped. Four smaller Schutte plants had learned that the Schutte plant in Lancaster was to be closed and that production was to be concentrated in Bridgeport. They saw this as a threat to their investments of US $ 200,000. They turned on the Pennsylvania Department of Banking through their lawyer . The consequences were grave. Because the state of Pennsylvania had already withdrawn the Schutte Body Corporation's permission to issue shares in the previous year due to irregularities, the takeover and reorganization were seen as a violation of the state's stock corporation law . This resulted in the arrest of Charles E. Schutte and CFO, George Fritsch, and a stock fraud charge. It is unclear whether there was a conviction. The press coverage, however, meant that not only the takeover failed; The Schutte Body Corporation had to close within a few months . Charles Schutte then worked in the automotive industry and held several patents in his field.

The Bridgeport facilities were used by Blue Ribbon , but they were too big. In 1927, the Holbrook-Brewster Corporation, a special body builder, was rented. This cooperation between HF Holbrook (from the Holbrook Company ) and Henry Brewster (from Brewster & Co. ) failed just a year later after only eight to ten bodies were manufactured, including at least one Bugatti or Mercedes-Benz.

Blue Ribbon built a few ambulances and hearses until 1930 and was sold after that. The company existed as the Blue Ribbon Garage workshop until the late 1940s .

Schutte today

Several vehicles with Schutte bodies still exist. The Cadillac Thirty from 1914 mentioned at the beginning is the oldest known specimen. It has the chassis number E4347 and is the only known vehicle with a Military Sport Roadster body. It was in the same family for almost 100 years. In 2013 it achieved a price of US $ 110,000 at an auction by RM Sotheby's on the occasion of the Concours d'Elegance St John's. The most prominent surviving vehicle is undoubtedly the Duesenberg Roadster from August Duesenberg's estate.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The performance of Rochester-Duesenberg engines is usually given as 70 to 75 bhp for the 4.8 liter and 81 bhp for the 6 liter. 100 bhp is the power that is usually quoted for Duesenberg racing cars, whereas 103 bhp corresponds exactly to the value of the Monsen-Duesenberg for Revere .

literature

  • Fred Roe: Duesenberg - The Pursuit of Perfection. Dalton Watson Ltd., Publishers, London W1V 4AN, England, 1982, ISBN 0-901564-32-X . (English)
  • Don Butler: Auburn Cord Duesenberg. Crestline Publishing Co., Crestline Series , Nov. 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)
  • L. Scott Bailey (Eds.), Jonathan A. Stein, Michael Pardo: Automobile Quarterly, Volume XXX, No. 4, Summer 1992 (Duesenberg edition). Automobile Quarterly, Inc., Kutztown PA; ISSN  0005-1438 .
  • Fred Roe: It all started with “A” - The first passenger cars. in: Automobile Quarterly ( ISSN  0005-1438 ), Volume XXX, No. 4: 24-37 (1992).
  • George Moore: They always called him Augie - August S. Duesenberg. in: Automobile Quarterly ( ISSN  0005-1438 ), Volume XXX, No. 4, pp. 14-20 (1992).
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Ed.), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1996, ISBN 0-87341-428-4 .
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA, 2005; ISBN 0-7680-1431-X .
  • George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. Dutton Press, New York, 2nd edition (hardcover), 1973; ISBN 0-525-08351-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Conceptcarz: 1924 Oldsmobile Model 30-B Schutte Turtle Deck Speedster; # 25874.
  2. ^ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 1324 (Saxon).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Conceptcarz: 1914 Cadillac Model 30 Schutte Military Sport Roadster; # E4347.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Coachbuilt: Schutte Body Co.
  5. ^ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 497 (Duesenberg).
  6. ↑ Conceptcarz: 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II D'Ieteren Imperial Cabriolet.
  7. ^ Roe: Duesenberg - The Pursuit of Perfection. 1982, p. 62.
  8. ↑ a b Coachbuild Forum: Blog about the Schutte Special and Schutte bodies for the Duesenberg Model A.
  9. ^ Moore: They always called him Augie - August S. Duesenberg. in: Automobile Quarterly , Vol. XXX, No. 4 (1992), p. 17.
  10. ^ Conceptcarz: 1926 Duesenberg Model A Schutte Roadster.
  11. ↑ a b c Coachbuilt: Blue Ribbon Body Co.
  12. ^ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 1996, p. 1477 (Traveler Taxi).