Pierce-Arrow commissioned this unique town car in 1936, as a prototype ”catalogue custom” offering intended to be launched in production the following year.

The car was bodied by the Derham Body Company of Rosemont, Pennsylvania, one of the country’s finest old coachbuilders, with their usual superb attention to detail and accuracy.

Perhaps because of Pierce’s turbulent financial state of the time, the car was not catalogued for 1937, and remained a true ”one-off.” It was sold by the factory to the flamboyant and wealthy Charles Cobb Walker of Manchester, Massachusetts, one of the factory’s great customers in its later years; he bought three Pierces in 1936 and 1937, reportedly arranging for consecutive serial numbers! Following the second world war, the Walker estate, Woodholm, was sold to lumber magnate John Grossman, who also acquired the three Pierces.

The town car subsequently passed through a succession of short-term owners, eventually being sold by Loren Holland of New York t...