1938 Talbot-Lago T23 Coupe

Talbot-Lago was a company formed by the collapse of Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq in 1935. Anthony Lago, the founder of the company, set-out to produce a line of exclusive and expensive sports cars. The cars initially used six-cylinder engines, but later models featured eight-cylinder engines, and the occasional cheaper engines to help increase sales.

The Talbots featured metallic paints and dual-tone finishes. This was the influence of Figoni. Chrome was decorated along the edgework of many of his vehicles.

In 1959 the company was taken over by Simca.

Figoni & Falaschi is known for producing some of the most flamboyant, if not elegant coachwork of the French carrossiers. Joseph Figoni loved working with the designers of high fashion who created gowns, hats, gloves, and shoes that perfectly matched the designs and colors of his cars. Falaschi once said, 'We were truly couturiers of automotive coachwork, dressing and undressing a chassis one, two, or three times and even more before arriving at the definitive line that we wanted to give to a specific chassis-coachwork ensemble.' Talbot-Lago was formed following the collapse of Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq in 1935. Anthony Lago, founder, set out to build a line of exclusive and expensive sports cars. He introduced the T-150-C in 1936, which enabled him to persuade Rene Dreyfus to leave Ferrari and drive for him at the French Grand Prix.

This 1938 Talbot T23 Coupe with coachwork by Figoni & Falaschi is a previous Ault Park Concours d'Elegance 'Best of Show' winner. Italian Giuseppe Figoni immigrated with his family to Paris, where he apprenticed in a coach works that eventually became Carrosserie Automobile in Bologne-sur-Seine near Paris's famous Longchamp race course, a mecca for the Parisian carriage trade. In 1935 Figoni acquired a partner, businessman Ovidio Falaschi creating 'Fignoi et Falaschi.' Figoni's automobile designs were flamboyant, graceful, and gorgeous, carefully sculpted with the eye of an artist who had an inherent appreciation for the air flow.

Upon the collapse of STD (Sunbeam-Talbot-Darrocq) in 1935, the French Talbot Company was reorganized by Anthony Lago and since then, the Talbot-Lago name was used.

This vehicle is built on the company's long-wheelbase chassis and is powered by a 4-liter six-cylinder engine with dual carburetors. Its radical Figoni & Falaschi coachwork was the first of several teardrop coupes that followed. The original owner was Ms. Beatrice Cartwright, heiress to the Standard Oil Company fortune. In 1938 she entered the car in the Nice Concours d'Elegance, winning the grand prix d'honneur in the coupe category. That same year she entered and won the Concours d'Elegance at Cannes. The Museum of Modern Art displayed this car in its 1951 exhibition titled 'Eight Automobiles,' showcasing the emerging art of aerodynamic styling. The car was treated to a restoration in 2000.

Designated a 'Coupe Royal' by Figoni, this luxurious car was originally owned by Mrs. Beatrice Cartwright, a Standard Oil heiress and sometime wife of car enthusiast Freddy McEnvoy. It was recently the subject of a painstaking restoration and today remains one of the most authentic Talbot-Lagos of its kind.