Active from 1897 to circa 1902, Marot Gardon, based at 33 Brunel Street in Paris, was an association between a financier and a watch-making engineer who manufactured early bicycles. Producing both a three-wheeler and a quadracycle introduced in 1898, Marot-Gardon used single cylinder engines from De Dion-Bouton. With offices in Paris and assembly taking place ninety miles north of the capital in the small town of Corbie, France, Marot-Gardon was one many small automakers scattered throughout France.

The following year, Marot-Gardon offered a 3-horsepower light car with a three-speed transmission, followed by a 4 ½ horsepower version in 1900. For 1901, the company offered a 6 horsepower, front-engine two-seater with a horizontal engine and a three-speed gearbox, as well as a racing voiturette with a rear-mounted 7 horsepower Soncin engine. There is very little other information known about this short-lived marque, and there is some question as to whether the company went out of business in either 1902 or 1904.

Dutch collector Arthur Janssen was on a driving holiday with his family in 1966 when the Janssen caravan (travel trailer) encountered trouble. When stopped for repairs at a garage in tiny Mouthoumet, in the south of France, Arthur recalled that he and father, Léon, spotted — and bought — a veteran voiturette with a rear entrance tonneau body. Arthur recounts that after it had been delivered to Amsterdam, Léon spent four years “reconstructing” it.

Between 1970 and 1971, the vehicle was registered with the Pionier Automobielen Club in The Netherlands. Initially thought to date from 1899, it was later believed to be from the following year. The PAC Technical Commission documents listed the car as having a “…vertical single cylinder engine of, 4.5 hp and with bore x stroke [of] 80 x 100 mm. “The car had two speeds forward and no reverse.”

As published the November 1970 issue of Veteran & Vintage Magazine, the Janssens entered the car in the 1970 Veteran Car Run (Brighton Run) as a 1900 Marot-Gardon. Just five years later, the car was consigned to Christie’s November 1975 Dutch sale. It still showed very well when auctioned, still wearing the Janssen restoration in an attractive teal green color with red frame, wheels, and coach lines, with black leather mud guards, and a tan pigskin interior. It also proudly displayed a brass coachbuilder’s plate from Carrosserie C. Leverrier.

Edward “Sandy” MacArthur was the winning bidder at the Christie’s sale and had the car shipped to his home in a Chicago suburb. Although Mr. MacArthur passed away in 1996, Mrs. MacArthur retained the car until the mid-teens, by which time it had been in the family for nearly 40 years. The next and most recent known owner proudly presented the car at The Amelia Island Concours in March 2017, as well as at the Audrain Concours and Virginia Festival of the Wheel, both in September 2019. Although the restoration was close to 50 years old, it had been very well cared for, and the car earned awards at both the Amelia Island Concours and the Virginia Festival of the Wheel.

Knowing that the car had been on the 1970 edition of the Brighton Run, the new custodian wanted to tackle the famous event himself. The first step was to have the car authenticated as having been built no later than 1904 to ensure eligibility for the famous event. While on holiday in the United States, a UK member of the Vintage Car Club agreed to examine the car with a view to “dating” it and determining whether it would be eligible for the Brighton Run.

As early as 1970, Léon Janssen had suggested that the engine might be a copy of a De Dion unit, due to a handful of differences. The VCC representative agreed with Janssen and commented that the engine was most likely based on a De Dion model that was not produced until late in 1901. The copy mimicked the De Dion engines of the period, by using a cylinder block of cast iron and a cast aluminum crankcase.  The report that followed the VCC inspection was unable to confirm the car’s age and origin, and, as a result, was unable to authenticate it to the satisfaction of the VCC.

Almost 60 years after the Janssens pulled this attractive single cylinder voiturette from a garage in the south of France, it still raises questions. Despite the mystery surrounding this diminutive French machine, what is certain is that it remains an utterly charming example of the earliest days of motorized transport.

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