Packard’s Senior Eight models of 1931’s Eighth Series could be had with elegant semi-custom bodies produced by some of the United States’s finest shops. Among them was a Convertible Victoria by Rollston of New York City, employing a very attractive, sophisticated sporting design originally created by the Massachusetts coachbuilder Waterhouse, with a “blind-quarter” top that lowered into a notch in the beltline, so that the folded top lay flush with the body. These were mounted to the longest 145-inch-wheelbase 845 Deluxe Eight chassis, which resulted in an automobile of powerful proportions, with its length accentuated by the relatively low windshield and roofline.

Vehicle number 845-97, offered here, is recorded on its reproduction vehicle data plate as having been delivered via S&S, Inc., of York, Pennsylvania, on 25 April 1931, a date appropriate to a very late production Eighth Series Packard. Research by historian Jonathan Sierakowski, completed for the current owner several years ago, included acquiring a copy of the Rollston build sheet, dated 23 December 1930 and noting the car to be body number 472 to design number 1168-A. According to Rudy Creteur of Rollston, who corresponded with subsequent owner Fred T. Huntington, this was one of eight sequentially numbered bodies to this design, all completed on-spec, as it were, for the Packard Motor Car Company itself. To this day the car retains its original chassis, engine, steering box, and front axle, all numbered closely together, as well as the original Rollston coachwork.

The Packard reappeared in the early 1970s, in the ownership of William Lester of Cleveland, Ohio, in whose care it was restored to its present appearance by Earl Lewis’s The Restoration Shop of Jamesburg, New Jersey. Mr. Lester prominently exhibited the Convertible Victoria in Classic Car Club of America competition, as well as at several Eastern concours d’elegance. At one time it was also on loan to the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland.

Later owners included the prominent Classic Car Club of America members Richard Slobodien of Plainfield, New Jersey, and William G. Parfet of Golden, Colorado, who in 1979 sold the car to Fred T. Huntington of Oroville, California. Prolific trader Tom Barrett of Arizona eventually acquired the car from Huntington; to whom he sold the car is not known. Around 2003, the Packard was acquired by enthusiast Al Johnson of British Columbia, and it remained in his family’s ownership for 10 years before joining the present collection.

With its high-quality restoration well-preserved and gently mellowed, the car remains a very handsome example of coachwork by one of the United States’s finest firms, to an exceptional design, on one of the country’s very best chassis. It would be a welcome addition to any discerning Full Classic enthusiast’s collection.