1910 Peerless Model 29 Park Phaeton

This car is a Model 29 which was introduced in mid-1910 and continued into 1911. Power is from a 25-horsepower four-cylinder unit with a 4-inch bore and a 4 5/8-inch stroke. The wheelbase measures 113 inches. It wears a custom body by Brewster & Company in New York City. The Victoria body is an adaptation of formal horse-drawn coachwork. There is an elevated seat for the driver and footman with a private seat in the rear. The style was popularized by Queen Victoria.

This example was owned by tobacco heiress Doris Duke. The Duke family may have owned it from new. But, since Doris Duke's husband James Cromwell was a Vice President of the Peerless Motor Car company, it is possible that the car had its ancestry on that side of her family.

The next owner was an opera singer and car collector James Melton, who would later sell it to pioneering plastic surgeon Dr. Sameul L. Scher.

When Dr. Scher made the group sale of a large part of his collection to noted Maine-based collector Richard C. Paine, Jr., the Peerless was included, joining another of the most prominent collections in America at that time.

On the death of Richard Paine, some 41 years later, the car was auctioned by Bonhams, at which point it was acquired by the present Private European Museum Collection.

While in Dr. Scher's custody, the car rewarded him with an AACA National First Prize, suggesting that it had recently been restored at that time. It is likely that the cloth-trimmed rear cabin section, cape cart top, and leather fenders are the originals.

The car has Peerless-branded acetylene headlights made by Atwood, Dietz Empire Junior kerosene sidelights, an Atwood kerosene taillight, and a Peerless bulb horn. The Victoria tonneau is finished in Brewster Green and upholstered in beige broadcloth while the rest of the Peerless is finished in black with Brewster Green wood spoke wheels.

In 1905, Louis Mooers and Barney Oldfield decamped to the Moon company. Peerless hired Charles Schmidt from Packard, the designer of the famed Packard Gray Wolf racer. Schmidt moved Peerless into the realm of the six-cylinder engine in 1908. The engine was modeled after the 30-horsepower four designed by Louis Mooers in 1905. Both were 4 7/8' bore, 5 1/2' stroke engines with T-head valve placement although the six got dual coil and magneto ignition. The engines used cylinders cast-in-pairs that bolted to cast aluminum crankcases. The driveline consisted of a three-speed manual transmission, shaft drive to the rear axles, and rear-wheel contracting band brakes. The suspension was by semi-elliptical leaf springs at the front, with platform rear suspension arrangement: longitudinal semi-elliptical leaf springs at each side which were secured to the frame at their forward extremities and shackled to the ends of a transverse leaf spring at the rear.

Peerless offered two four-cylinder engines and one six-cylinder engine on three different wheelbase chassis. Ten catalog bodies were offered by Peerless themselves, while some clients preferred their own bespoke coachwork from one of the major coachbuilders.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2013