It is safe to say that Ken Pearson enjoyed Lincolns. His collection included multiple examples, of which this 1923 Model L Sport Phaeton must have been a treasured favorite. Designed by Brunn & Company, of Buffalo, New York, and bodied by American Body Company, it was catalogued by the factory but looks fully custom, with a low windshield, lightweight doors, and exceptional Art Deco touches throughout. The rear passenger compartment was appointed with courtesy lights and glove boxes, as well as with a bar to hold the lap robe, so necessary for keeping one warm during winter motoring in an open car.

A numbers-matching, original-bodied Illinois car, this Lincoln’s earliest known owner was Florence Paskrich, in whose care it was stored from 1929 to 1956. When the garage housing the car was razed, Robert Brewer acquired it, passing it as a partially completed restoration to Ken Pearson in November 1962.

Typical of his engineer’s mindset, Mr. Pearson began to study and document the car thoroughly, collecting the correspondence between Mr. Brewer and Ford Motor Company regarding its history and correct features and building a collection of his own. He completed the painstaking restoration several years later, to standards more common to today’s restoration than those of the 1960s, and then began to drive it. During his ownership, this Lincoln completed an astounding 18 Glidden Tours, documented with different colors of ink on a hand-drawn map of the United States, which is included in the large collection of documentation that accompanies the Lincoln today. Mr. Pearson described the Lincoln as “a very fine, trouble-free tour car for us. It is a delight to drive.”

Fully serviced and still in outstanding condition, with 51,000 actual miles, this beloved Model L is typical of Ken Pearson’s cars, with long Illinois ownership, thorough documentation relating to virtually every detail of the car’s life and restoration, and an outstanding restoration, which, half a century on, still looks spectacular, down to the tiniest detail.