De Dion-Bouton Coupe Chauffeur Type BS from 1909

De Dion-Bouton Coupe Chauffeur Type BS from 1909, four cylinders, 3052 cc, 18 HP, 55 km/h

De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer operating from 1883 to 1953. The company was founded by the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton, and Bouton’s brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux.

The company was formed in 1883 after de Dion saw a toy locomotive in a store window in 1881 and asked the toymakers to build another. Engineers Bouton and Trépardoux had been eking out a living with scientific toys at a shop in the Passage de Léon, near “rue de la Chapelle” in Paris. Trépardoux had long dreamed of building a steam car, but neither could afford it.

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