Brunn & Company of Buffalo, New York, was renowned for the beautiful styling, superb build quality, and lush trim of its designs, making it a favorite of many wealthy East Coast clients – including Edsel Ford, who arranged for Brunn to become one of Lincoln’s most prominent suppliers of “semi-custom” bodies. Brunn’s Lincoln offerings were especially noted for the depth and breadth of the range, including everything from formal limousines to sporting touring cars and roadsters.

Few designs on the 1925 Model L chassis were more dramatic than Brunn’s “Beetle Back” Roadster, distinguished by the sporting tapered tail that seemed stretched back between the rear fenders. A more subtle variant of the “boattail” design that other manufacturers would make popular later in the decade, it was an exceptionally rare version of the standard Brunn roadster design. Reportedly only six examples of the “Beetle Back” Roadster were made in 1925, and only three are known to exist today.

The car offered here, according to written documentation on file, was purchased new by the newlywed Edgar and Lila Mason of Auburn, Indiana (itself a famous automaking center of the time). Mrs. Mason so loved her new Lincoln that she nicknamed it “Sis” and considered it a member of her family; it was her only vehicle for a lifetime of driving, covering some 90,000 miles and, in later years, being actually stored in her living room to protect it.

In 1977, the excellent original car was sold by Mrs. Mason’s heirs to Jim Riffenburgh, the first of several Lincoln Owners Club members who have preserved it over the years, including the renowned enthusiasts Tony Heinsbergen and Tom Powels. The present owner, himself a talented restorer who for many years restored the automobiles of the Nethercutt Collection, acquired it from the Powels Family, becoming only the fifth caretaker from new. As Mr. Powels had documented the car’s history and original colors, it was a relatively easy automobile to restore to its present award-winning condition. It has since won many honors, including 2nd in Class at the 2013 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and 1st in Class at several other West Coast concours, and the AACA President’s Cup in the Western Division in 2014.

Lincoln Owners Club members jealously prize these elegant coachbuilt cars – and the scarcer and sportier the body style, the more they prize them. Of the six Brunn-bodied “Beetle Back” Roadsters, only three survivors are known worldwide, and this is likely the only example to come to market in the near future. Accompanied by a tool kit, jack, wheel wrench, owner’s manual, and photographic documentation of its restoration, it marks a rare opportunity to become only the sixth caretaker of a truly special Model L Lincoln, one that carries with it the superb provenance recognized by many of the great Lincoln enthusiasts of the last half-century.