Forgotten French fancies
A chance find reveals the innovative coachbuilding of Gaston Grümmer
Imagine sorting out a loft and unearthing two large trunks packed with drawings, photos, press cuttings and correspondence relating to your father’s career as one of France’s greatest coachbuilders. Just such a surprise happened for Philippe Grümmer. As he dusted off the files, this extensive, unknown record relating to his father, Gaston Grümmer, showcased an extraordinary individual. The astonishing assortment of paperwork and photographs mapped out his diverse roles as a cavalry officer, WW1 pilot, founder coachbuilder, car stylist, aircraft designer and innovator of streamlined styling.
“My father died when I was 22, and through my childhood he mentioned little of his earlier life,” recalls Philippe. “The coachbuilding business closed in 1935, after which he became an insurance salesman. His life moved on. With his young wife – she was 20 years old – they relocated to the Loire valley where they started a family and enjoyed horse-riding again. The loft discovery revealed an amazing life.”
Before Grümmer became involved with cars, he survived more close calls than most people go through during a lifetime. Prior to WW1, he had served with the 5th Cuirassier Regiment and experienced two cavalry charges in action. After being brought down by a German machine gun on the front line, he miraculously survived a spear injury, a night rescue and water poisoning, but, after a lengthy recovery, was determined to return to service as an aviator.
Despite two alarming flying accidents, Grümmer continued to serve as a test pilot until 1919 when he returned to the family business, which was struggling to switch from carriages to automobiles.
Gaston’s flair for style and groundbreaking design transformed the firm’s clientele, and by 1924 he had founded his own company, Carrossier Gaston Grümmer, at new premises in Clichy. From building Weymann, Aldi and Baehr designs, Grümmer soon developed his own distinctive approach – first with sporty dual-cowled coachwork for the Oméga-six, and then a magnificent series of fabricbodied sports sedans. With long bonnets, short cabins featuring dramatic low windscreens, and fitted out with custom-made luggage, these imposing vehicles soon became the talk of the popular French concours d’élégance competitions.
Often with his attractive wife Yvonne modelling fashions to complement the paint scheme or interior fabrics, Grümmer’s coachwork regularly took top prizes resulting in a rush of orders. Celebrities soon sought out Grümmer’s services, including the famous band-leader Jack Hylton who commissioned a voluptuous faux cabriolet for his Rolls-royce Phanton II. It was a welcome order during the Great Depression.
One of Grümmer’s most spectacular creations was an extravagant roadster constructed on a Delage D8 chassis for wealthy Haitian businessman Albert Silvera, as a gift for his future wife. The pearl-white beauty featured a matching leather roof, special vanity cases mounted in the wings and white fur upholstery. Topped off with a Lalique ‘Spirit of the Wind’ radiator mascot, and with Ginette Jauret sporting a white fox-fur collar alongside the car, the glamorous Delage
scooped many awards including the Grand Prix d’honneur at the 1935 l’elegance Parisienne on the Champs-élysées. As Philippe points out: “My father was close to many constructors but particularly Louis Delage, who loved the D8 Roadster. It was eventually shipped to Haiti, although it mysteriously disappeared. That Delage was his proudest achievement.”
Grümmer also devised an exotic type of twodoor sedan with ‘transformable top’ and distinctive two-tone paintwork. Fitted to various Hispano-suizas and Delages, these lovely saloons continued Grümmer’s concours success.
As well as such show sensations, Grümmer also pursued streamlined developments, and in 1934 registered his own Aéroprofil patent. The result was another white Delage, but fitted with an aerodynamic saloon shell featuring a cowled radiator, windows extending into the roof, spatted rear wheelarches and a long, pointed tail. This bold new direction led to further bodies on Alfa Romeo, Peugeot and Renault chassis, but the failing French economy and the Depression eventually caught up with Grümmer. The Aéroprofil proved too modern for French tastes, and uneconomic to produce.
After searching out new contracts with the French army for armoured cars, and exhausting his wife’s inheritance, Grümmer eventually filed for bankruptcy in the summer of ’35.
The gifted founder switched to insurance, and one of the most talkedabout carrossiers vanished almost without a trace.
The survival rate of Grümmer cars underlines how many from the pre-war years have been lost. Of the 600 chassis bodied in the carrossier’s workshops on rue Martre, Clichy, a north-western suburb of Paris, fewer than 10 of these elegant, top-quality conveyances remain. These include two stunning Bugattis now in the USA, a rakish Type 38 roadster with flowing wings and screenless double cowl that won first prize at the 1927 Concours d’elegance de l’auto, and an exquisite Type 46 cabriolet. During the restoration of the ‘Petit Royale’ in 2012, owner Richard Adams was unclear of the original colour but Grümmer’s granddaughter found a 1930 oil painting inspired by the car that confirmed its exact shade.
It seems incredible that through the decades all of Grümmer’s most important designs have been scrapped. Thankfully, though, the family archives have been presented in a two-volume study published by Dalton Watson (Book of the Month, April) that offers a unique record of this glorious era of French coachbuilding.