The Great David Brownell

Besides waking up to a cold and icy morning here in New England on Saturday, I was greeted at my office desk with an email message from our long time friend Jerry Littieri with the subject “David Brownell Passed away in November.” I was shocked because I always wondered what had happened to him. The email contained a link (which I will share below in the comments) to an article written by John Gunnell of Old Cars Weekly about Dave and his great life achievements. Seeing this immediately sparked fond memories of my childhood, going to car shows with my dad and always seeing Dave set up in the flea markets with all kinds of great brass era and other prewar era goodies. Both my dad and uncle would always buy most of what he had. He was always happy to see us and always a cheerful guy who just loved old cars. I am too young to have really gotten to know Dave, but my dad, uncle and Dave were great friends and we are all deeply saddened to hear about his passing. As I have gotten a bit older (now 31 years old) I have obviously been working with and collecting a lot of great cars and have read through many old VMCCA Bulb Horn magazines and even many early volumes of Old Cars Weekly publications where Dave has written in or was mentioned and I have been really impressed with who he was and his great knowledge which added much more color to my memories of him. It is sad to learn of what had happened to him and that the last few years of his life were lonely and he was basically abandoned and forgotten. From time to time I always wondered what happened to Dave. I have now learned that he suffered a stroke and was kind of living in a assisted living home in Vermont for the last maybe 8 or so years. A sad end to a great man so it I felt compelled to also write something about him so he would not be completely forgotten. Not to say there are not other great car collectors and enthusiasts that also deserve to be remembered or written about (which I will try to in the future), but Dave was a close friend and a great man.

If you are not familiar with Dave Brownell he was a plethora of early car knowledge, his true passion being the brass era, but he had a very broad knowledge and knew just about everything. Writing is what he loved to do and he started writing about old cars as a young teenager and the rest was history. I was amazed to learn that Dave was a very close friend of Henry Austin Clark Jr. of the famous Long Island Auto Museum, another wonderful antique car historian and collector. Dave was actually the one who got Austin involved in writing his very popular column in the early Old Cars Weekly publications called “Young Nuts and Old Bolts” where Austie would talk about everything from how he used to find old cars in barns, car tours, and even how some crooked car collector screwed him out of something. I remember reading an article in Hemmings Motor News years ago entitled “Remembering Austin Clark” where Dave was interviewed and quoted, telling his memories of Austin and how they met:

“‘I met Austie in 1967 in Manhattan at an auction of vintage auto memorabilia. All he did was basically outbid me on every piece. Afterward I said to him: “You’re Henry Austin Clark.” “The one and the same.” “I was chasing a number of the things you bought.” “Oh, are you an automotive art collector?” “A budding collector.” “Oh, you must come back to the house, and I’ll show you some things you probably haven’t seen.”

So I went out to Glen Cove and spent a delightful afternoon with him. I bought a couple of pieces at very, very reasonable prices. I was charmed by an early French print of a guy behind the wheel of a car, wearing a checkered hat, with a lady. They’re flying along in the breeze and she has a big Gibson Girl hat on, with a bow strung around her chin. I thought it was a very, very nice embodiment of what early motoring was about. There was also a poster of a Zust [made in 1905-1917], one of the participants in that New York to Paris race in 1908. It was done by a famous German Expressionist artist. A very arresting piece.

I remember there was this great painting in his library: J.C. Leyendecker’s “Mercedes at Madison Square.” A classic piece: It was on the cover of the 1905 Collier’s automobile supplement. I vowed to myself: I’m gonna have that. I did eventually get it. I used to look at it every night. I’d study Leyendecker’s brush work, just the way he’d do a brass lamp with one twist of color.

That’s how our friendship began. It was worth losing out to him.”’

Dave goes further into his memories and how close he and Austin became, they would go to auctions, buy cars and parts together and even get drunk and stop at topless bars along the way. True collectors. He even talks about how Austin would hold his famous “Iron Range” swap meets where he had all kinds of excess parts and cars laid out from his travels and how everyone would pile into Austie’s old Autocar bus and drive down to his favorite restaurant in Southhampton called “John Duck’s” where Austin would have a few too many drinks and manage to drive everyone back to the museum. Of course, everyone, including Dave, knew Austie was a bit easier to deal with after lunch when he was a bit loosened up. I think his memories with Henry Austin Clark are very important to mention because it shows who Dave was and I think he really enjoyed that time in his life. He actually later was able to purchase Austins 3 liter Bentley which he would keep almost to the end of his life.

Besides his days drinking around with Henry Austin Clark Jr., he had many other great accomplishments including helping start and promote Old Cars Weekly, becoming editor of Cars and Parts Magazine in Ohio, then becoming editor of Hemmings Motor news, judging and speaking at numerous car shows and events and belonged to the VMCCA and Society of Automotive Historians. He also started the company “Automobilia Auctions LLC” with his friend Jerry Littieri which is still in business today auctioning great automobilia, and he was also the eastern representative for Gooding and Company.

Besides all of his accomplishments he was mainly just a really great friend to us. My dad and uncle sold and bought cars and great automobilia for a really long time with Dave and he even set up in our tent at the AACA fall meet in Hershey, PA for many years. One thing worth mentioning here was Dave’s red Morgan plus 4 that I remember fondly as a kid. He loved that thing and had it for a very long time, although he would eventually sell it to my dad who then sold it to another local collector so it was around me for some time. It’s funny how things happen because just a few months ago I purchased a great historical house (which I will also separately post about at a later time) and I have been collecting artwork and antiques and such to fill it with of course and my dad gave me a painting by our friend Penny Havard who painted a lot of great auto related pieces for collectors back in the 1970s through the 1990’s. It is a painting of a red Morgan plus 4 at full bore flying up (what I believe is) Prescott hill, my dad gave it to me with no explanation just something for my wall and of course it reminded me of Dave’s car. Well, upon hearing the news of Dave’s passing my dad said to me: “hey, you know that Penny Havard painting I gave you of the red Morgan climbing the hill?, well that was done for Dave Brownell back in the 80’s or 90’s and thats his car in the painting.” I now have the painting hanging in my kitchen, so now every time I have a glass of wine I can look at that painting and remember good old Dave Brownell.

-Alex Dragone

Dave at the Mercedes Benz Classic Center. - Photo courtesy of the Old Cars Weekly article that is posted in comments below.