Among New York automaker Pierce-Arrow’s innovations was being one of the first major automakers to employ a cast aluminum body, which had the advantages of lighter weight and greater rigidity. Their designers produced a sumptuous offering of styles, among them a design known as the “Vestibule” roofline, with a roofline that arched above rear doors framed under the glow of a carriage lamp—recalling the entrance to its owner’s undoubtedly impressive manse. This roofline was employed both on the fully closed Suburban—the marque’s term for a limousine—as well as on the Brougham, which featured an open-sided driver’s compartment in the traditional town car fashion.

The car shown here is, according to analysis by the late Pierce-Arrow Society historian Bernard Weis, the only surviving Brougham with the Vestibule roofline built on the Model 38-C-3, with its 415-cubic-inch T-head six-cylinder engine on a 134-inch wheelbase chassis. It was originally restored in the early 1970s by Bob Slonsdale and Joe Young for owner Jim Filler of Birmingham, Alabama, and in 1974 was displayed at the PAS Annual Meeting in Fredericksburg, Virginia, receiving the Vanderveer Trophy, at the time the PAS’s highest honor for a restored automobile. During its time with Mr. Filler the car was also the basis for a Lionel Forrest pewter sculpture, “The Pierce-Arrow,” produced by the Franklin Mint.

Mr. Filler eventually sold his Pierce-Arrow to the famed Imperial Palace Auto Collection in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it was displayed for many years. It was acquired from the Imperial Palace by collector Al Johnson of Surrey, British Columbia, and after remaining in the ownership of his family for years, was acquired by the present owner in 2013. Since then it has been well-preserved in his collection, still wearing its original restoration in very attractive overall condition.

Very few examples of the late Brass Era Pierce-Arrow have survived in such intact order as this mighty automobile, and fewer still retain the regal formal coachwork that so wonderfully displays the attractive design and superb engineering for which the Buffalo automaker was renowned. This is an exceptional Pierce-Arrow in every important regard.