The celebration of French culture continues at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, with displays of the finest examples of transportation from the end of the horse-drawn era and dawn of the automotive age. Carriages and early motorcars from France\u2019s prominent coachbuilders will be shown in the main Mullin gallery using examples curated from the museum\u2019s own collection.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited to offer our guests the opportunity to see these wonderful hand-built pieces of rolling sculpture in person,\u201d said\u00a0museum founder Peter Mullin. \u201cThe Belle \u00c9poque was a period of Western European history that lasted from the 1870s until the\u00a0outbreak of World War I, and it translates to \u2018Beautiful Era.\u2019 It was characterized by technological, scientific and cultural innovations in France, and the arts and sciences flourished. These vehicles are really sculptural art, and we are proud to exhibit some of the jewels of that wonderful era.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eight unique, hand-built horse-drawn carriages are on display, ranging from late 19th century examples from L\u2019Renault, Kellner and Labourdette, to estate carts, carriages and gigs built by Bugatti as late as the 1930s. One standout is a pale yellow carriage designed by Ettore Bugatti himself. A lifelong equestrian, Bugatti kept a well-equipped stable at his factory in Molsheim, France, and while this particular example went into hiding during WWII to keep it safe, it stayed in the Bugatti family until 1983.<\/p>\n
The automobile portion of the exhibit features nine beautiful\u00a0examples of early French automobiles from manufacturers such as Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Renault, Panhard and Levassor, Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq and more\u2014many of them concours award winners. Other era artifacts on display include Louis Vuitton luggage, tools from the time, leather driving apparel and period catalogs and literature. For more information please visit mullinautomotivemuseum.com.<\/p>\n
The celebration of French culture continues at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, with displays of the finest examples of transportation from the end of the horse-drawn era and dawn of the automotive age. Carriages and early motorcars from France\u2019s prominent coachbuilders will be shown in the main Mullin gallery using examples curated from the museum\u2019s own collection. \u201cWe are excited to offer our guests the opportunity to see these wonderful hand-built pieces of rolling sculpture in person,\u201d said\u00a0museum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":549237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,11441],"tags":[17152,894],"class_list":["post-495536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-museum","tag-car-culture","tag-museum"],"yoast_head":"\n