1935 Bugatti 57 Cabriolet Dandy by Henri Chapron

1935 Bugatti 57 Cabriolet Dandy by Henri Chapron - Unique Chapron convertible on a Type 57 chassis! - Original bodywork and engine - History documented since new by Pierre-Yves Laugier The Chapron bodywork in Levallois was primarily fitted on Bugatti chassis in the early 1930s. Having started with the Type 44 chassis around 1928, production continued with at least eight 5-litre Type 46 examples, several Type 49 ones, a rare Type 40 in 1931 and in the same year, a Type 50 model. Production for Bugatti cars after 1933 seem to have been highly confidential. They overlapped with Delage and Delahaye models, which only really gained momentum from 1936 onwards. It seems only two Bugatti Type 57 examples were bodied by the workshop, both featuring a very similar design. The first (chassis 57215/Mot 77) was delivered as a bare chassis by rail to Paris on the 22nd August 1934. This was an order based on quote No. 5135 for the Baron d’Armella, who later became known as Bertrand Dupérier in the world of aviation. The second is our 57349/Mot 240, delivered as a chassis by road on the 14th December 1935. Chapron Cabriolet Type 57 Quotation The Chapron quotation is quite detailed and also applies to the second car, as both bodyworks are virtually identical: "Deluxe DANDY-type convertible, special model. Bodywork: 2 wide doors opening on sturdy hinges. Roof folding down completely at the rear with external struts. Seats: Two adjustable front seats with reclining backrests. A wide rear bench seat with two side armrests. Wings: Two curved footsteps welded to the front wings. Wheel carriers: At the rear for two wheels, one built-in, the other one exposed. Boot: Made of sheet metal within the chassis. Extras: Interior trim in English leather. Special chrome moulding. Bodywork in black varnished calfskin. Special bonnet extending across part of the canopy. " The quote was approximately 30,000 FF per bodywork. It is worth mentioning that the term ‘Dandy’ already existed since 1930 and was revived in the early 1960s for Chapron’s creations based on the Citroën DS. Differences between both chassis, 57215 and 57349 The 57349 chassis features a horizontally chrome-plated moulding which extends all the way to the boot, whilst the 57215’s moulding runs down towards the rear wing. Both cars had front wings with side panels. A photo taken in January 1937 of the first car – then owned second-hand by the Duke of Vivonne – shows the bodywork moulding to be similar to the one now found on 57349. This 57215 convertible seems to have disappeared at the end of the war after being used by the French Liberation Army. It also had wheel covers on the rims. It is highly likely that 57349 was also fitted with this option, but its metal boot only contains a spare wheel. Delivery and historical record of 57349 The 57349 running chassis - fitted with engine number 240 mounted on silent blocks - was delivered to its first owner, Mr Max HICGUET, on the 14th December 1935. This was not his first Bugatti. Together with his father Victor Hicguet (from Belgium), he was the director of the company ‘La Dolomie Française’, founded by his father in 1902 and based in the commune of Flaumont Waudrechies in northern France. This manufacturer of refractory products specialised in processing dolomite for the steel industry. V. Hicguet was also a director and chairman of the Hermant-Hicguet bolt-making company in Haumont. The family collection of Bugatti cars were registered in the company’s name, except for the first one, which was a Type 46 bought second-hand by Victor Hicguet in March 1931; after his death, it was registered in Max Hicguet’s name at their private address, a small castle at 82 Rue Sainte Anne in Haumont. In 1933, the family drove a Bugatti 4L.900, a Type 50 convertible. The Hicguet family ordered their first Type 57: chassis 57282, delivered without bodywork on the 27th April 1935 and settled for 38,000 francs on the 28th June. This chassis was registered in the name of ‘Dolimie Française’ on the 24th June but does not appear to have been fitted with a bodywork and was subsequently returned to Bugatti’s stock in mid-January 1936; it was no doubt exchanged when chassis 57349 was purchased. The order for chassis 57349 (together with the down payment) seems to have been placed around the beginning of November 1935, as the vehicle title (following the submission of relevant forms to the Mines department) was registered on the 19th November under number 4060 MD 1, in the name of ‘La Dolomie Française’. It is worth mentioning that Victor Hicguet died aged 66 on the 26th November 1935, between when the car was ordered and when it was delivered to his son, who may not have been the actual person who originally ordered it. Max Hermant-Hicguet was born in Haumont in the Nord department on the 30th January 1910, in the town where the family’s bolt-manufacturing factory was based, called “Vve Hermant-Hicguet & Cie”. He did not marry until August 1943 in Neuilly-sur-Seine and was then living at 17 Avenue Vion Whitcom in Paris (17th district) with his mother. When the war broke out, it is highly likely that the family left the Nord department and took the Bugatti with them; the car was not put back on the road until 1946 by a mechanic. On the 6th May 1946, a certain Prosper NADAUD, living at 19 ter rue de Saint Germain in Port Marly, registered the vehicle in the department of Seine-et-Oise under the number 858 YC 7. Prosper Numa François Nadaud was a mechanic and the son of a baker, born in 1904 in Rilhac Lastours, Haute-Vienne. He was still in the South-West at the time of his wedding in 1929 in La Coquille in the Dordogne region, but we trace him back again in the 1931 censuses of Port Marly as a garage owner at his address on Rue de Saint-Germain. He died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1992. It is doubtful that he ever used the car, which was probably not roadworthy at the time of its purchase, which may have taken place during the war. He sold the Bugatti to its third owner in 1949, as indicated in the certificate of sale: “I, the undersigned, hereby certify that Mr Prosper Nadaud, residing at 19bis Rue de Saint-Germain in Port Marly S&0, has sold to Mr Marceau Convenant, residing on the Route de Vannes in Nantes, my Bugatti 57, serial number 57349, registered as 858 YC 7. I declare that this car has not undergone any modifications and authorise the change to the vehicle registration document. Port Marly, 7 May 1949." Photographs we have of the car prior to the restoration confirm that the vehicle was not roadworthy. Marceau Convenant (1914–2005) was an automotive professional who served as the long-standing manager of the Peugeot dealership in La Baule. Marceau Convenant kept the vehicle in its original condition, stored in his garages for almost forty years, before carrying out a complete restoration in the mid-1980s in order to present it to the Club Bugatti France at the great international rally in La Baule in 1992. He had the vehicle registered under the number plate 1721 XD 44 at the Nantes prefecture on the 20th September 1991, using his home address on Avenue d’Ouessant in La Baule. An article published in the November 1991 issue of Automobile magazine described the vehicle's restoration as follows: “As a former mechanic, Marceau Convenant waited until he reached the retirement age of 70 to restore the Bugatti Chapron convertible, which he discovered in a wrecked condition in the late 1940s. For the past seven years, he has dedicated all his time in restoring this car, which has been stripped down twice to work on the mechanics and paintwork. To source particular parts, Marceau Convenant and his wife Rachel travelled abroad and for instance, they were able to find the rear axle in Belgium " As indicated by pictures prior to the restoration, the vehicle seemed to be complete; fixtures, windscreen pillars and soft top were all present. Only the shell-shaped headlights had replaced the original model. Vehicle analysis An inspection of the vehicle reveals an interior with door and dashboard woodwork of a different design typically found on Type 57 chassis. Chapron has here produced a bespoke order that is unique in its execution. The design of the dashboard and door panels are in line with the Parisian coachbuilder’s style and very different from typical designs by Gangloff or the factory workshop. The dashboard is entirely Chapron’s own creation. The Chapron bodywork number was found on one of the bonnet’s chrome hinges. It bears the number 4929. This forms part of the coachbuilder’s 1935 production run; indeed, a 1935 Delahaye Chapron bears the number 4810 and another from 1936 bears the number 4972. The upper engine housing bears the original engraved chassis and engine numbers 57349/240. The gearbox (number 342) comes from a Ventoux coach with chassis number 57450, delivered in November 1936 to an industrialist from the Mayenne region named Maurice Bouesse. The rear axle number is not visible due to a plate covering its top surface. According to Mr Convenant, it was acquired in Belgium and therefore originates from another car. The chassis is fitted with hydraulic brakes, which were no doubt fitted to the vehicle by Max Hicguet around 1938. This car is undoubtedly the sole surviving example of master coachbuilder Chapron de Levallois and his work on a Bugatti 57 chassis. Furthermore, it seems there is only one other Bugatti bodied by Chapron still in existence: a 1931 Type 40A cabriolet (out of several dozen cars bodied between 1928 and the mid-1930s. This particular Type 57 convertible was only used as an everyday car by its first owner, certainly until the war and before it was put into storage; it was sold at the end of the war to a mechanic who simply preserved it, just as the third owner from Nantes did, keeping it untouched for nearly forty years. Pierre-Yves LAUGIER For ARTCURIAL October 2026 Photos © Maximilien Lamy

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