After acquiring the Lincoln Motor Company in 1922 as it teetered on the brink of failure, Henry Ford charged his son Edsel with reorganizing it into a thriving luxury flagship.

The younger Ford recognized the need to shake Lincoln’s outdated image with a reputation for conservative design and pushed the company toward offering an array of semi-custom bodies directly from the factory.

This move vaulted the marque into the upper echelon of opulent American automotive manufacturing, alongside the likes of Cadillac and Packard.

Within one year, Edsel’s management style and keen eye for design had increase Lincoln’s sales by 50 percent and made the company profitable.

In keeping with its affluent competitors, Lincoln offered bare chassis to be fitted with either bespoke bodies or “semi-custom” bodies offered directly from the factory.

Of all the coachbuilders to create bodies for Lincoln chassis, none is more closely associated with it than Brunn & Company.

Edsel Ford had long been a ...