Provenance:
Collection Fritz Schlumpf, Mulhouse;
Family Schlumpf, obtained by inheritance;
Auction Estate Schlumpf, Etude Gasser Audhuy, Hôtel de la Monnaie, Molsheim, 5. July 2009, Lot 198;
Swiss private property, acquired at the above auction.

Expertise:
Mme Véronique Fromanger has confirmed the authenticity of the the work, Octobre 2026.

Literature:
Véronique Fromanger, Rembrandt Bugatti Sculpteur, Répertoire monographique. Paris, Les Éditions de l'Amateur, 2009, no. 44, illustrations page 258, 238;
Philippe Dejean,et al. Carlo-Rembrandt-Ettore-Jean Bugatti. New York, Rizzoli, 1982., illustrations page 200, 250, 256, 261, 320;
Bernard Lamarche-Vadel et al. BUGATTI, les meubles BUGATTI, le sculpteur, BUGATTI, les autos. Paris : Editions de la Différence / Vence: Galerie Beaubourg, 1995, illustrations page 42, 71, 147;
Edward Horsewell, Rembrandt Bugatti Life in Sculpture. London, Sladmore Gallery Editions, 2004, Page 41;
Anke Daemgen/ Philip Demandt, Rembrandt Bugatti: The sculptor, 1884-1916. Berlin, Hirmer, 2014, page 104.

The present work once adorned one of the most iconic automobiles in automotive history as its radiator mascot: the Bugatti Royale Type 41, chassis number 41100, the so-called “Coupé Napoléon” of 1926.
In 1926, Ettore Bugatti, with the assistance of his son Jean, created an automobile that was intended to surpass everything previously known in terms of performance, engineering and elegance. With its eight-cylinder engine, 300 horsepower, a length of 6.5 metres and a top speed of up to 200 km/h, the Bugatti Royale was the most extraordinary automobile of its era.
However, owing to the difficult economic climate of the late 1920s and early 1930s, only six examples of the Royale Type 41 were ultimately built. Ettore Bugatti retained the first Royale for himself. Its chassis number ends in zero, whereas the chassis numbers of the models he sold end in the digit one.
Today, three Royale Type 41 automobiles are housed in museums, one belongs to Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S., and two remain in private ownership.
In tribute to his brother Rembrandt, who had died in 1916, Ettore Bugatti used Rembrandt’s 1904 model of the “Petit Éléphant dressé” as the basis for the vehicle’s radiator mascot. This sculpture, which had resulted from Rembrandt’s intensive study of the animals at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, was cast in a small number of examples in silver-plated bronze by Valsuani on commission from Ettore and Jean Bugatti.
To date, however, only two original period casts of the ‘Éléphant dressé’ radiator mascot are known. Both originate from the collection of Hans and Fritz Schlumpf. These two Swiss industrialists had built a textile empire in Alsace and assembled in Mulhouse what became the world’s most important Bugatti collection. In 1963 and 1964, Fritz Schlumpf acquired the two outstanding centrepieces of his collection. First, as part of the sale of the remaining Bugatti holdings, he purchased Ettore Bugatti’s personal Royale, the legendary “Coupé Napoléon”, from which the “Éléphant dressé” radiator mascot presented here originates. The following year, the purchase of the collection belonging to the American J. W. Shakespeare brought another Royale Type 41 into his possession: the so-called “Limousine Park-Ward".