Bugatti - Tapa dura

Those who know the name Bugatti, think immediately of cars. Connoisseurs of automobiles consider Bugattis among the greatest masterworks of automobile design. What these specialists probably don't realize, however, is that the great car designs of the late 1930s relate to a tradition of artistry and design including sculpture, drawings, furniture, and decorative objects that extends well into the previous century. Three generations of the Bugatti family, working in Milan and Paris, made important contributions to the visual arts. Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940) was a designer first of furniture and later of metalwork. Carlo's second son Rembrandt (1884-1916) became famous as a sculptor of animals, while Ettore (1881-1947) was essentially a self-trained automotive engineer who eventually became a successful manufacturer of racing, sport, and touring cars characterized by the ovoid arched shape of their radiator grills. Ettore's son Jean (1909-1939) designed distinctive automobiles, and it is his work that has most significantly contributed to the fame of the Bugatti name today. Contributors to the volume include Henry H. Hawley, curator of Renaissance and later decorative arts and sculpture at the Cleveland Museum of Art; Veronique Fromanger des Cordes, an associate in the Conservatoire Rembrandt Bugatti in Paris; and Mickey Mishne, member of the Bugatti Owners Club of England and the American Bugatti Club, and photojournalist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Also included is a biography of Carlo written by his granddaughter L'Ebe Bugatti.