Flapper Couple Pontiac Coach Antique Car NY Street May 1926 - Original Photo For Sale

An original 6x3.5" antique photo (NOT a modern reprint) from the estate of a vintage automobile photo and postcard collector. This was part of a huge collection of antique photos.

Photo Overview

A well-dressed couple pose beside their closed two-door coach on a quiet residential street in this snapshot dated May 2, 1926. The gentleman wears a three-piece suit and holds a cigarette. The young woman beside him wears a fashionable drop-waist flapper-era dress, low heels and a bobbed hairstyle. She rests her arm on the car door.

The automobile is a mid-1920s General Motors coach that closely resembles the 1926 Pontiac Chief of the Sixes coach. It has a tall radiator shell with a center emblem and motometer cap, drum headlamps, wood artillery-spoke wheels, a front bumper, a cowl visor over the windshield and vertical hood louvers. It wears a New York license plate. Behind the car is a row of gabled wood-frame houses with front porches along a brick-paved street, typical of upstate New York neighborhoods of the era. The photo comes from the estate of a vintage automobile photo and postcard collector.

Historical Notes

Pontiac was introduced by General Motors at the New York Auto Show in January 1926 as a lower-priced companion to Oakland. The Chief of the Sixes coach was its first and most popular body style, and it sold for well under a thousand dollars. More than 76,000 were sold in the first year, a record for a new make at the time. Within a few years Pontiac outsold its parent Oakland, and GM ended the Oakland name in 1931. Pontiac went on to become one of America\'s best-known brands for over 80 years until GM discontinued it in 2010. A brand-new car photographed in May 1926 would have been among the earliest Pontiacs on the road. The tree-lined streets of frame houses seen here reflect the 1920s suburban growth that the affordable closed car helped make possible.

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Text Present

Front, upper left, handwritten in ink: May 2. 1926

Front, license plate on car: New York plate

Back, upper right corner, small pencil notation: .40

Print analysis

This is a vintage gelatin silver snapshot print with a warm sepia tone. The paper surface and toning are typical of mid-1920s amateur photofinishing. The handwritten period date on the front matches the 1926 car, clothing and plate. This is a Type 1 original photograph, printed at the time the photo was taken.

Condition

All photos and postcards we sell are in fair to excellent vintage condition. Please see photos for any tears, folds, smudges, or other age damage that may be present.

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