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| photo in the author's collection (by Charles Barenne) |
I acquired this image along with a couple others recently and after much research I'm still not sure what it is. Thus, if anyone has ideas about the make of this early electric motorcar, please leave me a comment.
What I do know is that on the card the photograph is mounted too, it says "Ch. Barenne, Paris - 27bis Rue Duret (Avenue de la Grande Armee)". This refers to Charles Barenne, a portrait photographer based in Paris, France. Barenne appears to have photographed the well-to-do in Paris as well as the social past-times in vogue at the time (such as cycling and later automobiles). Rue Duret is a residential side-street off the Avenue de la Grande Armee.
Any reference to the make of the car or the people in the photo is not noted. After a bit of looking into the make of the automobile, I can rule out Krieger (a sizable French manufacturer of electric Broughams from 1894-1909) as they used electric motors on the front wheels - which the car in the image does not have. It is also not a Baker, or a Rauch & Lang, or a BSG (another French maker of electric Broughams). I'm also ruling out the English Electromobile.
It's possible that the car is of the City & Suburban Electric Carriage Co., Ltd. - the English licensee of the Electric Vehicle Company's Columbia line. Additionally, it could be the a product of the Gallia Electric Carriage Co. of Paris (you can see one of their ads below). However, I'm leaning toward the Electric Vehicle Company's 1906 Mk LXVII Landaulet. The Eletric Vehicle Company of New York (the conglomerate establish to dominate the electric commercial vehicle market) had a strong presence in Paris around this time.
Now it's your turn to tell me what you think this car might be.
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| The Gallia Electric (photo credit: Automobile Topics, July 21, 1906) |
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