Produced in Antwerp, Belgium, between 1904 and 1933, the Minerva was rightfully considered one of the finest and most expensive automobiles in the world. It was noted for its impressive size and superlative engineering, including Knight sleeve-valve engines with mechanically actuated pistons that opened and closed valve ports in the top of the cylinder head—a complex design, but one which was also extremely smooth and silent. Minervas were also often the basis for extraordinarily handsome custom coachwork.

Chassis number 56543, the AF offered here was delivered through American importer Paul Ostruk of New York City. Like many of the Ostruk Minervas, the car was fitted with custom coachwork produced under his name, first by Locke and later by LeBaron, the renowned coachbuilder established by design legends Raymond Dietrich and Howard “Dutch” Darrin. It is believed that this body is a Locke creation, given its resemblance to the coachwork they fashioned for Lincolns and other fine chassis.

The car’s original owner is believed to have been Philip “P.J.” Rappoport, a Paterson, New Jersey textile manufacturer. Mr. Rappoport’s son, Seymour, who inherited the car from his parents in 1974, wrote to a later owner that the Minerva “had only 17,000 original miles [and] was driven only by a chauffeur for the first year and thereafter only by me,” strongly indicating that it had been in the family since new. Indeed, it is believed that when he inherited the car, it had been in storage for over 40 years and had suffered only slightly, making an easy task of its restoration in the original livery. Afterward the car remained in Mr. Rappaport’s hands until May 1988, when he sold it to the renowned Belgian Minerva historian and collector, Jacques Vander Stappen.

The AF was kept in the Vander Stappen collection until early 2018, when it was sold, soon thereafter finding its way into the hands of its present enthusiast owner. Its sympathetic original restoration remains intact and in good order overall; further, when recently operated by an RM Sotheby’s specialist, it was noted to run well, and, surprisingly, to emit little smoke, something common to a sleeve-valve Minerva. It would be ideal for further sorting for touring, or for gracing one’s local concours with a truly impressive piece of European grandeur.