Herschu (Herbert Schultz) Sportcabriolet coachwork design by Alexis Kellner AG for the Cadillac 341-A. 1500

Description

Gouache and watercolour heightened with gum-arabic on very dark green card, annotated in pale ink with body type below, numbered … more Gouache and watercolour heightened with gum-arabic on very dark green card, annotated in pale ink with body type below, numbered ‘78’, in upper left corner, German copyright label on verso.

Finished in red with contrasting dark grey roof and trunk, with matching solid disc wheels, presented against a tree-lined rural roadside in silhouette, this graceful 2-door cabriolet was powered by Cadillac’s famous V8 engine. Founded in 1902 from the remnants of Henry Ford’s first manufacturing venture, the company was rebranded as Cadillac after the founder of the city of Detroit at the beginning of the 18th century, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. The firm was acquired by General Motors as early as 1909, to be their flagship brand, as by which time it had already made its mark as a maker of luxurious and technically innovative cars. The V8 engine was first introduced in 1915. The longer chassis of the 341-A of 1928 allowed for a sleeker, lower-slung, body that suited such a sporty design treatment by such creative coachbuilders as Kellner.

[Berlin, 1930]

Founded by Alexis Kellner (1880-1953) in 1910, in Berlin, the eponymous Alexis Kellner AG coachbuilding company’s stylish automobile bodywork designs were immediately successful. This was demonstrated by the number of orders he received at the International Motor Show, in Berlin, in 1911. Kellner was noted for his inventiveness of small details, such as a concealed handle behind the driver’s seat for quickly and easily raising and lowering the car’s roof, concealed bonnet hinges, for aesthetic as well as aerodynamic reasons, and a suitcase mounted on the running board.

The company’s success reached its zenith in the 1920s, when it was famed for the luxury bodies it designed for such prestigious manufacturers as Audi, Austro-Daimler, Bugatti, Cadillac, Horch, Maybach, Mercedes, and others. This popularity stemmed from both the highly stylish external lines and the sumptuously appointed interiors. This emphasis on sensuous indulgence was even reflected in the company’s pioneering use of nude women in its advertising.
But, as with so many manufacturers dependent on wealth and stability in the market, its fortunes crashed in 1929, and Alexis Kellner was declared bankrupt in 1930. The brand name and patents were sold to arch-rival, Drauz in Heilbronn, against whom Kellner had launched a plagiarism suit in 1920 over a particular body design, who shrewdly maintained the Kellner name for its sales company.

The stylishness of Kellner’s coachbuilding was perfectly captured and presented to the public by the artistry of Herbert Schultz. Unlike the flamboyant designs he portrayed so skilfully, Schultz was a modest man, despite being a creative all-rounder. In 1818, as a commercial artist and caricaturist working for the Berliner Tageblatt, he gained the admiration of fellow contributor, the artist George Grosz. Schultz had only recently come to Berlin, having graduated from the Royal Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig, followed by a spell at the Kunstakademie in Hamburg.
Schultz’s skills as a graphic artist lent themselves perfectly to illustrating promotional catalogues to appeal to Alexis Kellner AG’s affluent clientele, which had included the royal household. Always signing his work as ‘Herschu’, he presented these imposing designs against subtle open country landscapes, glamourous night cityscapes, or floating in isolation against a solid ground.
Following the demise of Alexis Kellner AG, Schultz’s ongoing artistic career was finally blocked by the Nazi state when he refused to part with his half-Jewish wife. So the Herschu name faded, as did that of Kellner, only for both to be rekindled now in these recently rediscovered, breathtaking, design. less