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.

Though quite similar at first glance to the contemporaneous design by Brunn, this car is in fact a unique styling exercise by Derham.

It features a cut-out section over the chauffeur’s compartment and a raised windshield.

The rear quarter windows have been replaced by more steel; similarly, the rear trunk was substituted for an externally mounted rack.

Derham’s splendid design is, of course, underpinned by the standard 462-cubic-inch L-head V-12 engine and three-speed manual transmission with overdrive.

By the time this lavish prototype was completed, Pierce-Arrow was in such poor financial shape that they had resorted to building travel trailers in a...