The De Dion-Bouton Type IS was a 10CV car manufactured at the company’s Puteaux factory from 1922 to 1925. The four-cylinder engine had a displacement of 1847 cc and produced 24 bhp. The body on this example was known as a torpedo. The IS had braking on the rear wheels only, whereas the IT had four-wheel brakes.
De Dion-Bouton made the decision in 1919 to manufacture four new models: two with four cylinder engines and two with eight cylinders. The smaller-engined pre-war cars were not revived. But times were hard after the Great War, and the company’s new range, now at rather elevated prices, must have been difficult to sell.
And yet, the press response to the new V-8 cars was extremely positive, praise was offered in The Autocar for the engine’s smooth running.
By 1925, the British De Dion company had established a division called “H.H.H.” to manufacture high-quality British bodies on chassis brought in from France. It is possible, but not certain, that the car in our Snapshot has such a body.
The quality of manufacture of the cars in the post-World War I period was not always up to scratch. As evidence for this, in 1964 Bill Boddy, editor of Motor Sport, interviewed P.S. Kempster, the half-brother of H.W. Hillman, the post-war managing director of the British De Dion importer. He reported that the London office employed a ‘tester’ who worked full time in Puteaux to make sure that the bare chassis despatched to Great Britain were the ones with engines and back axles making the least noise. When these ‘best possible’ chassis arrived in London they were given a thorough inspection and a road test of 50 to 100 miles with a test body.
In 1925, an attempt was made to boost sales by entering a Type IW 12/28 at Brooklands, driven by the Bentley Boy Dr J.D. Benjafield. A chassis with a higher axle ratio was sent over from France, to which the Uk operation added a two-seater body. Sadly, its top speed was not much over 70 mph; unsurprisingly, it did not cover itself in glory.
The company struggled on during the 1920s with a number of models at steadily lowered prices, but the economic conditions that killed off many makers led to the end of car production in 1931. A small number of commercial vehicles were made until 1950, and the last De Dions were licence-made Land Rovers in the early 1950s. The company name was bought by a motorcycle maker in 1955.
Photo by Peter McFadyen. See his website: http://petermcfadyen.co.uk
This 1924 car is identical to the “H.H.H.” body illustration in a late 1923 De Dion Bouton advert labelled “an English 3–5-seater, all-weather torpedo – priced at £540”. Also, pre-motor show reports said “the following will be exhibited on the De Dion Bouton Stand, No. 142, at Olympia: 12-24 h.p. Model IS Chassis, side-by-side valves, 765 x 105 Rudge Whitworth wire wheels and Michelin cable tyres, fitted with London-built HHH 3-5 std. all-weather torpedo, painted woodside grey, upholstered in HHH grey antique leather, black dome wings, set of English accessories – nickel finish with set of Wefco oil gaiters: £540. Chassis price: £390.”
Up to at least 1905, bespoke coach-built De Dion Boutons were made at a number of specially appointed Parisian works, specified to the requirements of the British De Dion Bouton sales company’s customers, which meant fitting bigger seats and body-coloured, not black, wings. Until 1913, De Dion Bouton London had to buy in some bodies to install but that year built a large new body shop, next to its new engineering works on the Edgeware-road near Cricklewood, where imported chassis received English bodies.
After WW1, fully Puteaux-built cars were displayed on the French De Dion Bouton stand at London motor shows and some were advertised with complete French carriage bodies, but a significant proportion sold by 1921 were London-built. As early as October 1919, French De Dion Bouton chassis advertised for pre-ordering for March 1920 delivery, were to be fitted only with English Torpedo bodies: 12/14-h.p. 4-cyl. torpedo £780, 18/20-h.p. 8-cyl £1225, 25-h.p. 8-cyl £1640. HHH was positively named in adverts as the supplier/manufacturer of the bodies fitted to all UK De Dion Boutons from autumn 1920. Editorials confirmed they were made at the “chief London Depot, Woodside Works, High-road, North Finchley, N12 under the registered title of H.H.H. Ltd.”
Some other coach-builders did offer to fit bodies, including Martin Walter Ltd of Folkstone, a sales outlet for De Dion Bouton, which was putting its own bodies on 12/14-h.p. chassis in 1922. Also, Westminster Motor Trading Co. Ltd. and the Chelsea Motor Building Co. Ltd. exhibited some at shows.
H.H.H. Ltd. had three H-initialled directors and all had been English De Dion Bouton directors or senior managers from as early as 1899. First, Herbert Osbaldeston Duncan, a champion London-born but Paris-based Victorian cyclist turned cycle, motor car and motor component agent, was one of the original directors of the new London-based De Dion Bouton British Colonial Syndicate Limited formed in October 1899 to take over and expand his French procurement business at No.3 Rue Meyerbeer, Paris. The 1899 De Dion Bouton directors included the Hon. J. S. Montagu and S. F. Edge. Duncan was one of the British Motor Car Club officials who organised the 1896 Motor Car Parade and in the 1920s, wrote a sensational exposé of early motoring “The World on Wheels”. When the successor De Dion Bouton (1907) Company was formed in London it controlled the sale of all vehicles made with De Dion Bouton patents in Britain and its colonies. Duncan became the managing director of its French operations.
Second, Herbert Hurd Rodwell, who had joined the original syndicate company in 1901, became De Dion Bouton (1907) Company secretary probably from its inception and in 1915 was left in charge of De Dion Bouton while managing director John William Stocks, another Victorian ex-international cyclist, was on army service – Stocks had been MD of De Dion Bouton (1907) Ltd from its start. On return in 1916, war-wounded Stocks went to Ariel Motors and Components Ltd but Rodwell remained a De Dion Bouton director and was chairman well into the 1920s.
Third but most influential was Harold William Hillman, who became managing director of the privately-owned De Dion Bouton business set up in 1919 to take over the English operations of the De Dion Bouton (1907) Company – S. F. Edge was chairman. When the 1907 company was established Hillman, who had joined the firm in 1903, became its first sales manager. It then had two London sites in North Finchley and Brewery-road, presumed Islington, where he later became works manager. After the post-war reorganisation when De Dion Bouton (London) Ltd. was formed, Hillman headed the whole UK import, coach-building and maintenance operation, based in North Finchley but with the old head office and spares depot at 10 Great Marlborough-street. The company gained the right to install French engines in London-built chassis and label them De Dion Bouton.
Four-wheel braking became standard on all overhead valve De Dion Bouton models from autumn 1923. In 1924-25, London offered no De Dion Bouton 8-cylinder engines but four 4-cylinders were available: the 70x120mm (1847cc), 12/24-h.p. side-valve engine was somewhat outdated and a poor performer compared to the same dimensioned 12/28-h.p., which had overhead valves. There was also a, probably side-valve, 15/18-h.p., 78x130mm (2485cc) and the overhead-valve 22/65-h.p. 95x140mm (3970cc). Before 4-wheel brake models, the chassis details were described as similar for all four sizes.
The new, economy 9.5-h.p. “10/20” J.P. introduced in late summer 1925 cost £295 and came with four seats, 4-wheel brakes, four speeds and a French body, described as “a glaring contrast to that coachwork excellence usually associated with De Dion Bouton cars.” It was hoped HHH bodies would soon follow and did, although quality came at a price: their de-luxe tourer was £350. Likewise, the 12/28-h.p., a 4/5-seater with fixed front seat and rigid all-weather curtains was £595 with an English body or £495 with French. There was also a wood-pillar coupe with 3-5 seats for £665 and a Pullman saloon for £870. These latter 1925-26 models definitely had HHH bodies, 4-wheel brakes, electric lighting and starting, a speedometer and a clock. De Dion Bouton London’s advertising promoted company history and quality heavily throughout the 1920s up to 1926.
De Dion Bouton HHH wood-framed bodies were always bespoke, manufactured to customer specification using personalised blue-prints. It was light-car makers turning to in-house body manufacture during the 1920s that made English De Dion Bouton’s coach-built light cars chic but expensive. As HHH remained a separate limited company, by 1925 although still fitting bodies to De Dion Bouton chassis, it was advertising that it was building bodies on other makes too. That year it was also announced that the concern was now under the direct control of Edwin H. Taylor “well-known in the coachbuilding world”. For 1927, the 10/20 had an English fabric body by an unnamed maker.
A De Dion Bouton I.W. chassis with a HHH body was photographed and several other styles advertised during 1926 but late that year a northern agent offered limited numbers of various De Dion Bouton models with HHH bodies at low prices, stating these were absolutely unrepeatable offers, which suggests the end or imminent demise of the HHH coach-building business. No reference to H.H.H. and its eponymous directors found in press motor reporting after that.
De Dion Bouton commercial vehicles and/or chassis were imported at the same time as the car chassis and likely many were given commercial bodies in England too, probably by a multitude of coach-builders. The 1923, 30-40cwt commercial chassis was still fitted with a dated pair-cast 4-cylinder 90x140mm engine but such De Dion Bouton chassis remained popular with charabanc builders.
During the 1920s, the main independent De Dion Bouton sales outlet in the south east of England was Johnson Neal and Co. Ltd. and by May 1925, they had been absorbed into De Dion Bouton (London) Ltd. Throughout 1927, De Dion Bouton of Puteaux was restructuring after getting into financial difficulty although, according to English press reports, they maintained a supply of cars, commercials, chassis and spares all year. They stated there was to be a significant reduction in types for 1928, with initial concentration on I.W, J.E. and charabanc chassis, thereafter more commercial chassis, some passenger autocars and only one “tourist chassis”. A new 8-cyclinder engine was to be added to the catalogue later, although it was only used in commercial chassis. Soon after and perhaps as a result of that Puteaux restructuring, the 10 Great Marlborough-street address for De Dion Bouton became that of Anglo-Foreign Motors Ltd, main concessionaires for Etablissements De Dion Bouton, Puteaux. During 1927-28, the whole English De Dion Bouton sales business appeared to come under the control of a re-established, independent, multi-marque agency of Johnson Neal Ltd in Conduit-street and Holford Square, after which UK De Dion Bouton vehicle sales progressively diminished.
By-the-by, perhaps instructed by De Dion Bouton, the press was mute about Benjafield driving their underpowered car at Brooklands in 1925, although at the August Bank Holiday meeting one correspondent did spot what must have been the new JP model there: “Very pretty is the new De Dion Bouton, with its blue body and curious circular radiator cowl.” However, an earlier speed attempt by De Dion Bouton at the not-long-opened Brooklands back in 1908 was understandably even slower but much more effective and widely reported. Astute J. W. Stocks had spotted that no car had yet been entered for the “up to 90-h.p. with anything up to 195mm bore” challenge. He surprised the officials when he applied to try for it and turned up with only a 12/14-h.p. De Dion Bouton chassis (probably 75x120mm/2120cc). Over ten laps he maintained just 53mph, compared to a 90-h.p.’s possible 80mph and duly had his and the De Dion Bouton name engraved in the Brooklands speed register as gaining the first ever record in that category – a bit of cunning Edwardian PR.