Chauffeurs window

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

Does anybody happen to have pictures of the rear window dividing the chauffeur compartment from the passenger compartment on a series 81 7 passenger sedan? Allegedly my dad remembers their being window there ours was removed so his mom could whack him when he was misbehaving.The good old times

Thanks in advance,

Robert J Reeves

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

Is your front seat movable? If your car was originally an enclosed drive limousine the front seat would be fixed in place.

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

Ken,

I believe that all of the Series 80 /81 Sedans had fixed front seats.

It is a shame for we long-legged Gents who do not have a Chauffeur.

Peter

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

Thanks Ken and Peter.

No, nothing about the front seat moves. The chauffeur clearly was expected to be a smaller man, and to sit absolutely upright while piloting madame to the salon.

I have no independent information to decide whether our car was an EDL or a 7 passenger sedan. I describe it as sedan because that’s what the entries in the roster called it. Our car is a Series 81.

My son has taken the mahogany wood strip off the top of the chauffeur’s bench; there is no glass down there, but the seat back has two items that seemingly preclude any major piece of furniture: first the hanger for the lap robe and secondly a small metal plate that probably covers the insertion point for the window crank (I was not allowed, as a child to put up the window, because mother, serving as chauffeur, couldn’t reach me if I were to require “correction” (who, me?)). I did crank it up occasionally, of course. The intercom between the rear seating position and the chauffeur’s compartment is still in working condition. The picture shows the present situation of the seat back.

I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. At this point, this is an interesting mystery rather than the vital piece that will get us back on the road.

Bob Reeves

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

Bob,

Is there space for a piece of glass between the back of the front seat and the mahogany wood cap?

BTW, lovely inlays and it looks like there are lots of fingernails scratches in the center.

Perhaps the recollections are of riding in a similar Series 81, but not this one?

Peter

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

More importantly: is there a mechanism visible to hold and crank up and lower a long sheet of glass?

The window crank, if it had one, would be in the center, about half way between the floor and the top wood trim.

Greg Long

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

I do not think that this car had a roll up chauffeur’s privacy window. There has to be a side track for the window, essentially parallel to the door posts. I do not see any indication that there is a window track at the door posts.

Maybe someone who has an EDL can post an image of the window and window tracks from a Series 80/81 ?

Greg Long

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

Peter:

I am pretty sure that the silk rear and the leather chauffeur’s compartment have been redone and not by someone duplicating what was there. I don’t think it likely that the family photos will produce anything helpful, beyond the famous series 80, of course…

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

It is typical that any seating area exposed to high wear and tear, or to the weather will be upholstered in leather. The wool was reserved for the lower traffic areas, or for enclosed seating.

I agree with Peter: not only having to raise one’s voice to be heard and understood. but maybe the owner had a soft voice, or impaired vocal cords ? Or the chauffeur had poor hearing?

As for the room for a window, and a metal plate over an access hole. The bodies and there component parts were made as economically as possible, so the seat back may be a ‘universal’ part that when the car was to have a privacy window installed, was then added to, or slightly modified..

EDL cars typically have several inches less room between the seat-back cushion and the steering wheel. NO BIG-BELLIED Chauffeurs Allowed !!! Or very tall ones either !!

It seems odd, but this trait seems to be universal with body design.. Even ‘Miss-Helen’ my ’26 Derham bodied car has limited legroom for the driver. I would think that a custom-bodied car could have been designed to have the same room/space for the driver as in a standard sedan? I’m just under 6′ tall and I’m a ‘bit’ cramped when driving Miss Helen.

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

The average male in 1920 was 5ft. 7 inches.

[Author]

Posts