Citröen’s magnificent DS reached its zenith with the coachbuilt Décapotable, an exclusive cabriolet built by the famed Henri Chapron shops from 1960 through 1972, of which fewer than 1,400 examples are believed to have been built.

The DS 19 Décapotable offered here was acquired in 1977 by the late owner, a renowned Bay Area architectural glass and stained-glass artist who had appreciated the DS since his college years.

He had fallen in love with the Décapotable and, after two years of hunting, acquired this one, which had been traded into Executive Motors by its original owner on a Citröen SM.

“I traded my nice low-mileage wagon and all the money I had to buy the Chapron-bodied DS cabriolet…I just had to have it,” he noted in an article in the August 2018 issue of Sports Car Digest .

“I was in graduate school at the time and working part-time for architects and interior designers as a draftsman.

I had just enough money left to buy a bottle of French champagne as a gift to the owne...