Gabriel Voisin was a pioneer of French aviation, who until his dying day claimed that he had successfully fielded an airplane before the Wright Brothers.

He went on to produce planes for the Great War, then, when the bottom fell out of that industry at peacetime, turned his attention to automobiles.

Voisin cars were powered by Knight-patent sleeve-valve engines, famously smooth and quiet in operation, and were idiosyncratically designed, often with bodywork that reflected their creator’s tastes: Cubist and exotic, with wildly patterned interiors and numerous exposed mechanical components, as Voisin believed that good engineering was beautiful and should never be hidden.

The Voisin offered here is believed to have been constructed on the basis of the popular C11 model, equipped with a 65-horsepower inline-six.

It is said to have formerly been part of the collection of the late Walter Grell in Rheinfelden, Switzerland, whose select group of fine automobiles also included such raritie...