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Collecting Racing History Text and Images by
Paul Chenard
I
’ve been collecting vintage racing items since 1982. I started slowly and haphazardly, partly for lack of information, mostly for lack of finances. I would collect any metal transportation toy that I found interesting, anything that caught my eye (and that I could afford). In the late ’80s, a Canadian-made tin wind-up racecar toy from about 1935 came into my collection and suddenly, I had to find more racecar toys. I slowly traded away my other toys to acquire more metal (tin and diecast) racecars.
As my collection of vintage racing toys grew, I became curious of the actual history of the racing car represented. I started picking books on racing history, and slowly started to get drawn into the fascinating stories I was coming across. I bought more and more books, and began absorbing more and more racing history. At the same time, I started adding non-toy items to the collection. The collection grew gradually until the appearance of eBay. Whoa! I suddenly had access to the items I had only read about! Still working with a limited budget, I managed to grow the collection even more. I picked up racing posters, press kits, programs, decals, patches, and of course, more toys!
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Garage Style Magazine Fall 2013
Over the years, I’ve also made close friends in the industry, and they have all fed me a steady stream of items from back in the day. As a collector of motorsports items, this of course includes original art. Because of my geographic location and limited budget, I have less direct access to original art. In studying racing history and the stories, I found that about 90-percent of the motorsports artists were not rendering the stories that I thought they should. My training and profession for 30 years has been in graphic design. I’m self-taught in my art, having drawn from a young age until I was sixteen, when I discovered women. Needless to say, I stopped drawing! With the idea that I wanted original art in my collection, in late 2006, I picked up some art supplies and started at it. As I did a new piece, I would post it on a website, and began getting feedback and requests. The major breakthrough happened when I did a series of American World Champion Phil Hill’s successful history with Ferrari. They were picked up on Mr. Hill’s website, and he signed the first 25 of each of the four of a series of 250. Sadly, my print series is the last print series that he ever signed; a year later he passed away from Parkinson’s. Late last year, I decided to do my art full-time and moved into an apartment. I thought it was time that some of the collection came out of boxes, and decorated my space. I decided that since my apartment is also my studio and my office, it was important to tastefully decorate, choosing very carefully an interesting cross-section of the whole collection. Some items have been chosen for dramatic effect, such as a 1980 Grand Prix de Monaco poster. Other items are shown because they carry an interesting personal story, like a “Sunny Slope” fruit crate label, a shadow box of racing patches, a 1930 Chenard & Walcker brochure, or Denise McCluggage signed photos. I also have picked up some nice racing movie lobby cards,
which are less expensive than the posters, smaller, and cheaper to frame. There is also an interesting contrast between the American lobby cards, and the bigger and bolder Mexican ones. If fact, the Mexican lobby cards from the movie “Grand Prix,” of which I have the complete set, are poster size!! When I first moved into the apartment, I couldn’t help noticing that one of the living room walls had huge potential as a canvas, so I painted a large 6.5 foot acrylic painting of the starting grid of the 1961 Grand Prix de Monaco, which really becomes the centerpoint of the space. I also have my main reference library in the same room, so it becomes a comfortable meeting room, or a nice place to do reading research. I have the majority of my vintage toy collection in a tall display cabinet, where I added five extra glass shelves. I also have many interspersed here and there in the bookshelves, counters, and end tables to add visual interest. When you consider that I’m only showing about one-sixth of my print collection, it shows that you can very tastefully decorate with very little, at nominal costs. A nice place to come home to! GSM Show us your sanctuary We love garages and offices - anywhere you can show your passion for all-things-automobilia! Got an office, den or other room decked in vehicular style? Send us some pictures, and let's have a look! Maybe we can feature it in an upcoming issue of GSM! Email pictures to: info@garagestylemagazine.com
“I decided that since my apartment is also my studio and my office, it was important to tastefully decorate, choosing very carefully an interesting cross-section of the whole collection.” Garage Style Magazine Fall 2013
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