Rare Original
Large 1930 Pierce-Arrow Full Line Prestige Dealer Color Sales Catalog
Super Rare Original Large 1930 Pierce-Arrow 36-page Full Line
Prestige Dealer Color Sales Brochure Catalog measuring 11” by 16-1/2”. Although the thick covers are chipped &
torn around the edges, the inside pages are fantastic with 20 Models shown in
their absolute glory, prefaced by an illustration of a P-A Motor Car from the
famous artist Adolf Treidler. Catalog comes
complete with a few color pictures of interior features and lists all
specifications of each vehicle, as well.
In 1930, P-A extended its Straight 8 Line for its 2nd
straight year, and introduced 4 new wheelbases that improved the spaciousness
of all its vehicles, while retaining its slender & graceful luxurious
looks. This was the year they
categorized all their Motor Cars into 3 Groups – A, B, & C, which
essentially was dividing the classes by wheelbase and motor size. Class A had 7 Models and was the Most
Elaborate & Luxurious Class where a chauffeur was recommended to their
clients. These Motor Cars had wheelbases
of 144 to 147 inch and 132 horsepower engines.
Class B had 10 Luxurious Models with wheelbases from 134 to 139 inches
and 125 horsepower engines. And Class C
had 3 Models that their engineers called a triumph with a 132 inch wheelbase
and 115 horsepower engine.
In the first fifty years of the twentieth century there were thirty
makes of automobiles manufactured in Buffalo, NY. From some of America’s first electric
vehicles, like the Automatic Electric & the Buffalo (Babock) Electric to
the famous Thomas Flyer to what was acknowledged to be America’s Finest
Automobile – the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car.
And not one of them survived.
Pierce-Arrow should have survived, having the very best
engineers and management team in place at the very beginning. P-A supplied the White House with its first
Official Presidential Motor Car in 1909 – a trend that continued each year for
the next 20 years. Some say P-A’s
inability to see the trend to smaller, more affordable vehicles following the
Stock Market crash of 1929 was their demise, while other’s blame a large local bank
who had promised a loan to a group of local investor’s who bought out the P-A
management in 1933 and wanted to design & build smaller versions of the
Pierce-Arrow to compete in the marketplace.
But at the last minute, the bank got cold feet and pulled the rug from
under the group, and the City of Buffalo leadership just shrugged their
shoulders (to be fair, the city likely had just as many issues as the
depression hurting everybody). Pierce-Arrow
Motor Car Company was forced into bankruptcy and closed permanently in
1938. A proud company that once employed
over 10,000 employees, had state-of-the-art equipment with the tightest
tolerances in the industry, and had nearly 40 motor cars on the 1.5 Million sq ft
of premises in various stages completion went into receivership and were
auctioned off on short notice for pennies on the dollar.
So, in a nutshell, there you have it. I’m sure there’s a much longer version of
P-A’s demise out there with details that may even challenge my synopsis – but
that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
If you are a Pierce-Arrow collector, this is one to grab, as you just
don’t see them pop up very often. The
string-bound catalog has all its pages intact with some light age-toning, but
the colors are still quite vibrant, as you can see from my pics. A couple of pages have a small corner missing
and one page as a ½” tear along the side and bottom. Otherwise, with the exception of its cover, Overall Condition, commensurate with its age of 94 years, is
between Very Good and VG+.
Being offered here at a respectable ‘Buy It Now' price, due to its
rarity….. or you can simply ‘Make An Offer’. All offers will
be seriously considered!
Thanks for looking –
and keep checking back for more quality antiques, vintage collectibles,
ephemera and more!!