Coachbult.com - Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky



Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky 1901-1964

A highly thought of modernist designer of the 30's and 40's. He got out of Russia following the Bolshevik revolution. He apparently did automotive design work for Cord, Auburn and Packard, and did the '32 Devaux, '33 Nash and the '34 LaSalle, and perhaps most notably, the 1934 12cyl Packard 1108 Sport Phaeton (for LeBaron), said to be one of the most beautiful designs of an American coachbuilder. There is reference to his design of furniture including the "Mae West" radio including a picture of him. He was working for Hayes when American Austin awarded them the design contract. While at Hayes, de Sakhnoffsky designed bodies for not only for the Bantam but also for the 1932 DeVaux.

And, designing a small car like the Bantam and Austin might have come honestly...he was perhaps the greatest pedal car designer of all time! Anyone have any info or pictures on these? Sure would like to see them if you do! In 1937, Steelcraft, the Cleveland-based pedal car division of the Murray Ohio Manufacturing Co claimed as much anyway, and Count de S was the winner of the Grand Prix at Monte Carlo for six consecutive years in the Elegance Contest for his "juvenile automobile" designs.

The Austin/Bantam literature does note that for the design of the Bantam (as opposed his original design for the American Austin in 1930) Sakhnoffsky only charged $300 becuase the Bantam company was living hand to mouth and that the design work only took 3 days.

The Count is perhaps most famous for bringing Champagne taste to beer trucks. Beer advertising was prohibited in Canada and the Labatts Company needed public attention. Through the White Motor Company, Labatt's commissioned de Sakhnoffsky to conceive a tractor-trailer that would both haul huge loads and serve as a travelling billboard. He designed four Streamliners, each one better than the last. I did find these great pictures of the most radical of these trucks, a reproduced/restored truck shown at the Vancouver Expo in '86, the White tractor-trailer . The l947 Streamliner's curved corners and horizontal lines were impressive. The vehicles moved beer across Ontario until l955, when Labatt's sold off its Streamliner fleet and brought an end to an era.

Streamlined Trucks: When Industrial Styling Went Wild,” Custom Classic Trucks (December 2001): pp62

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1940 Nash roadster "The Golden Chariot " . It was designed by Count Alexis Sakhnoffsky and plated in 24 karat gold to sell war bonds during World War II . This car was for sale during the 1940s for $25,000 and there is a newspaper clipping on the rear of the photo describing it . It was owned by Professor Andrew Primo , New Orleans , Louisiana . The car was shown during a war bond drive with a sign attached , " Kill a Nazi ! Kill a Fascist ! One Dime One Bullet will kill a Jap ! ... History is in the making " . according to the article this was the first war bond car made.

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On pp 197 of Wagner's Ford Trucks since 1905, there is a picture of a streamlined LaSalle Wines and Champagne Inc. tractor trailer that looks like deSaknoffsky could have designed it. The cab was based on a 1940 Ford COE with a 101" chassis and featured unique forward-sloping coachwork designed to correspond with the forward slope of the streamlined trailer. The cab merged into a lower body fairing that flowed into the rear drive wheels, which were covered with fender skirts (spats). The trailer was designed to match the cab (or vice-versa) and featured matching fender skirts and fairings that covered the normally-exposed trailer chassis.

LaSalle was headquartered in Farmington, Michigan, a northwestern suburb of metropolitan Detroit.

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Briggs built convertible victorias for Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler, and Rockne from 1930-1934. The design originated in a 1928 body designed by deSahknoffsky and built by D’Ieteren, Van Den Plas is alos given credit for a version from the same time period. Soon after it appeared at the Paris Salon, both Murphy and Waterhouse had US versions ready in a few short months.

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Although Walter White had died a few years before, Hays was still contractually obligated to use White Motor Company equipment and turned to the firm to produce 37 new buses. The 15- to 19-passenger buses were designed by Count Alexis de Sakhoffsky, an industrial stylist. Design work also involved F.W. Black, president of White Motor Company, and Herman Bender of the Bender Body Company, which supplied the bodies. The buses cost $5,000 each.

Streamlined Trucks: When Industrial Styling Went Wild - Custom Classic Trucks (Dec 2001) pp62

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The 1931 Devaux automobile was designed by DeSahknoffsky, the art director of the Hayes Body Corporation. He was unhappy with the design and felt that the engineers had forced the long flowing lines of his original design into a stubby silhouette. As it turns out, the bodies he designed weren’t actually used. The penny-pinching Devaux managers utilized leftover Durant bodies instead, although his fender, hood and grill designs were actually used, even though advertisements stated the car had been designed by him. The Hayes body plant was located directly across the street and the leftover Durant bodies were transported across a second floor bridge connecting the town buildings that ran over the roadway.

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The styling of the White Model 706 did not go unnoticed. The radiator cowling and grill were the design of the renowned Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, a Russian immigrant whose designs had been used on the Packard, the Cord, and the DeVaux automobiles among others. The Bender Body Company had designed and built the coach body with the design influence of Herman Bender and F.W. Black, president of White Motor Company.

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He came to the US in 1928 and for several years worked for the Hayes body company.

During WWII he returned to Russia as an Air Force Major wiht the US Military Mission in Moscow.

He also designed the famous streamlined Canadian Brewery tractor-trailer trucks of the the 1930s and 1940s.

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de Sakhnoffsky, Alexis (Packard) Alexis de Saknoffsky is born in Kiev, the Ukranian State of the Soviet Union on November 12, 1902. Thirty years later, in January, 1932, de Sakhnoffsky is hired by Edward Macauley, director of styling, to be a consultant to Packard. de Sakhnoffsky's role will be to introduce newness to Packard styling, including long hoods and an integration of his own ideas with that developed by Dietrich. Dietrich, meanwhile has moved on and will end up at Chrysler where he will be placed in charge of exterior designs. In 1933 the Century of Progress cars win highest honors and are perhaps the ultimate expression of the skills of the automotive designer. The cars are a merger of Ray Dietrich's basic designs with the elongated hood developed by de Sakhnoffsky coupled with his slanted "A" door post and the placement of the spare tire to the rear of the car. This prolific designer also produced bodies for American Bantam the original designer of the Jeep.

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Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky

Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky was at the height of his career as a technical designer when he was asked to design Labatt streamlined truck in 1935.

Sakhnoffsky first came to the West after fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. While in Switzerland, he studied automotive engineering, and, combining this acquired knowledge with a fertile imagination, the Russian embarked on a career of designing custom-built sports cars for the rich and affluent.

After storming Europe with his eye-catching creations, Sakhnoffsky was drawn to the North American automotive industry, where during the early 1930s he designed models of the Nash, the Cord and the Airflow Chrysler.

When a new magazine for men called ‘Esquire’ began in 1934, Sakhnoffsky agreed to become the technical and mechanical editor. The magazine immediately became a showcase for Sakhnoffsky’s design concepts. Each month readers were treated to drawings of futuristic cars, trucks, boats and other examples of mechanical wizardry.

In addition to his fascination for different modes of transportation, Sakhnoffsky was preoccupied with ways of making life easier for his fellow man. He produced drawings of movie theatres with alternating seats for more legroom, a swimming pool with rubber escalators and bathtubs with everything from headrests to temperature controls.

For the office worker, there was the executive desk, complete with built-in water-cooler, clock, barometer, thermometer and a flashing red light when it was time for an appointment.

And for the well-heeled adventurer, an air-conditioned jungle caravan was designed with all the amenities of home, encased in a body that was insulated against heat, humidity, insects and even tropical pollen.

With these and many more ideas Sakhnoffsky gained a reputation for incorporating comfort, beauty and detail in his work. It was a reputation, which caught the attention of Labatt and convinced the brewer that he was the ideal choice for designing the Streamliner.

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Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky

Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky was at the height of his career as a technical designer when he was asked to design Labatt streamlined truck in 1935.

After a short period working for Vanden Plas Coachbuilders (Belgium), Sakhnoffsky was drawn to the North American automotive industry, initially at the Hayes Manufacturing (Body) Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he designed the 1932 Devaux. Later on he designed the 1933 Nash, 1934 LaSalle, 1933 Cord L-29 and 1934 Chrysler Airflow.

For the office worker, there was the executive desk, complete with built-in water-cooler, clock, barometer, thermometer and a flashing red light when it was time for an appointment.

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The Golden Chariot ", a 1940 Nash customized/designed by Count Alexis Sakhnoffsky and plated in 24 karat gold to sell war bonds during World War II . This car was for sale during the 1940s for $25,000 and there is a newspaper clipping on the rear of the photo describing it . It was owned by Professor Andrew Primo , New Orleans , Louisianna . The car was shown during a war bond drive with a sign attached , " Kill a Nazi ! Kill a Fascist ! One Dime One Bullet will kill a Jap ! ... History is in the making " . according to the article this was the first war bond car made

For more information please read:

Streamlined Trucks: When Industrial Styling Went Wild - Custom Classic Trucks (Dec 2001) pp62

Biographies of Prominent Carriage Draftsmen - Carriage Monthly, April 1904

Marian Suman-Hreblay - Dictionary of World Coachbuilders and Car Stylists

Daniel D. Hutchins - Wheels Across America: Carriage Art & Craftsmanship

Marian Suman-Hreblay - Dictionary of World Coachbuilders and Car Stylists

Michael Lamm and Dave Holls - A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design

Nick Georgano - The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile: Coachbuilding

George Arthur Oliver - A History of Coachbuilding

George Arthur Oliver - Cars and Coachbuilding: One Hundred Years of Road Vehicle Development

Hugo Pfau - The Custom Body Era

Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Car