Chassis No. 1964

Engine No. 451964

The Kissel Motor Car Company of Hartford, Wisconsin, produced a solidly engineered, well-designed luxury automobile favored by America's wealthiest, most flamboyant personages during the Jazz Age. Best-remembered of the Kissel offerings is the jaunty two-passenger speedster, with its bee-tailed rear end and cut-down doors, an automobile practically designed to accompany a raccoon coat and a flask of Canadian Club. Most often seen in Chrome Yellow with black fenders, it was popularly known as the "Gold Bug," a name suggested in a Kissel-sponsored advertising contest.

The Gold Bug offered here, a Model 6-45 of namesake cylinders and horsepower, was acquired in 1921 by Charles T. Bent of Rhode Island, who promptly used it to take his new wife on their honeymoon to Niagara Falls – which must have made quite an impression on the newly christened Mrs. Bent. The Kissel remained with the Bent family for 37 years, and at one point was actually used by the couple's daughter, Beatrice, as her college automobile. In 1958 it was sold to antique dealer Ralph Murphy, then passed to George Hall, who began a restoration completed by the next owner, Eugene E. Husting of Boston. Mr. Husting exhibited the car at several Veteran Motor Car Club of America gatherings, as well as in the club's museum at what is now the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Shortly thereafter the Kissel was acquired by the famed Harrah's Automobile Collection, which had been seeking a Gold Bug for its growing fleet. Bill Harrah was wont to occasionally upgrade examples in his collection and was especially keen to acquire the first or last of a series. This Gold Bug, being an early car, was thus supplanted in 1962 by the earliest known example. It went on to change hands several times through the coming years, most prominently residing with Alfred Koller, in whose ownership it enjoyed a body-off restoration at the hands of Penn-Dutch of York, Pennsylvania and became an AACA Senior award-winner.

Since 2014 part of the Academy of Art University Automobile Collection, the Kissel still shows very well, with only minor cracking visible in the paint at the rear of the body; the interior, of crushed leather, has a very comfortable appearance, like a favorite easy chair. Halliday spring-loaded bumpers, a period accessory, add a charming touch, as does, of course, a Kissel signature feature – the folding "trap seat" on the side of the body, providing a mount for a riding mechanic or a particularly thrill-seeking passenger. It is accompanied by a small history file that includes correspondence with the Bent family and Kissel historians while in the Academy of Art University's ownership.

Just as in the 1920s, there is, simply, no more jazzy-looking car!

Addendum & Administrative Notes

Please note that this lot is titled as Model Year 1922.