One of the grand Mercedes models of the Brass Era, the 28/60 PS was, in company tradition, a finely engineered and extraordinarily modern car for its time. It was built on a rugged pressed-steel chassis with a 7,240-cubic-centimeter T-head four-cylinder engine and four-speed gearbox delivering power through a universal-joint propeller shaft and rear-axle assembly. With about 60 horsepower by modern ratings, it was a vehicle of performance to match its stature, the sort of grand machine that bolstered Mercedes’ name worldwide and was the basis for some appropriately outstanding coachwork.

According to copies of its Mercedes build sheets on file, this particular 28/60 HP chassis was initially ordered around 1914 but, with the outbreak of World War I, remained in the factory’s auspices for some time. The records indicate that initial delivery was to be made in June of 1915 by Stuttgart dealer H. Balz & Company to August Schweizer, believed to have been a Daimler agent in Ulm, but this may not have been consummated. In 1919 the car was updated by the factory with the latest, more imposing 720-millimeter V-shaped radiator shell, again as recorded in the build records. Final delivery appears to have been made in June 1922 to one Benno Neumann of Laupheim. Who finally produced the handsome town car coachwork is not recorded, but it bears a strong resemblance to the rather audacious bodies built in-period by Szawe (Szabo & Wechselmann) of Berlin.

Not long afterward, the car is noted on the record as having been shipped across the Atlantic to California, for a client recorded as Laemmle. Given the name and locale, it is possible that this was the film producer Carl Laemmle, a major early figure in Hollywood, who co-founded Universal Pictures and was involved in the creation of such classic pictures as All Quiet on the Western Front and Dracula. In 1931 it appeared in the film Waterloo Bridge, which was—likely not by coincidence—produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. Later the car became part of the burgeoning collection of Art Austria, whose Simplex Garage in Venice Beach was a noted early supplier of prop automobiles to film studios. A photograph of the car in Austria’s ownership, likely part of a portfolio made available to the studios, is included in the accompanying history file.

The 28/60 HP remained in the Austria collection until 1970, when the fabled stable was dispersed at one of the first major single-owner automobile auctions hosted by what was then known as Sotheby's, Parke-Bernet. It is believed to have been sold at that auction to Earl Peters of Hayward, California, who inquired to the factory regarding its specifications later in the 1970s. In 1997 the car was acquired by another longtime Southern California enthusiast, who undertook a meticulous restoration back to original condition, completed by the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance-winning craftsman Mark Goyette of Bennington, Vermont.

In addition to the restoration of the town car to its original configuration, an open tourer body was also completed for the Mercedes, built to the same specification as the town car by the noted British coachbuilders Crailville, thus recreating the “summer and winter” configuration that a prospective buyer might have chosen in the early 1900s, providing a body for each major season of life, to be exchanged as needed. This body was mounted to an exquisitely finished rolling display chassis, beautifully crafted of wood and complete with a burled “grille” and “headlights,” to support it when not in use. Both the completed 28/60 HP town car and the body on its rolling chassis were intended to be displayed together, as indeed they were at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Two years later, the car and its display chassis with tourer body were acquired for the Vehicle Vault Collection, where both have remained a centerpiece exhibit.

Still in fine overall condition, this Mercedes is a stunning piece, with not one but two graceful bodies and a fascinating history among great collections. It is sure to continue to turn heads within the stable of its next caretaker.